India today successfully launched a Reusable Launch Vehicle, RLV-TD space shuttle. This is the first time India has taken this programme.

The first experiment that was conducted was the Hypersonic Flight Experiment (HEX) which lasted nearly 10 minutes starting from the liftoff to splashdown. The dummy vehicle was used for the experiment which could not be recovered. RLV-TD is significant as this is considered as the first step in developing the reusable rocket. The launch took place from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. From now it may take nearly 10 to 15 years of time to develop the reusable rocket. The reusable rockets will be a major step if succeeded, in cutting the space shuttles costs as these can be used again ana again over a period of time. This will also be responsible for bringing down the launching cost of the shuttles in the earth’s polar and geostationary orbits in the future.

There is a series of experiments or can be termed as steps which constitute HEX, LEX (Landing Experiment), REX (Return flight experiment) and SPEX (Scramjet Propulsion Experiment) in the Reusable Launch Vehicle programme. Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) director K. Sivan has stated that the attempts are being made to make the reusable vehicles lands like aircraft on a particular location and runway. The present dummy vehicle was landed in the Bay of Bengal. The vehicle is 6.5 meters long and weights up to 1.75 tones. Its resembles the normal aeroplane like structure.

The cost of developing the RLV technology is estimated to be about Rs 100 crores ($15 million). The space agency’s telemetry, tracking and command network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore will collect the data from the vehicle.

India is just following the footsteps of NASA which used to have its own space shuttle programme with shuttles like Enterprise, Discovery, Endeavor, Columbia, Atlantis and Challenger.All these were seen as a space transportation system for over three decades from 1981 to 2011. But, NASA finally ended this programme. Columbia was destroyed in 2003 when it was returning from a space mission killing all seven astronauts on board, including Indian-origin NASA astronaut Kalpana Chawla.