Launch of India's maiden space shuttle: 10 things you must know about ISRO's ​RLV-TD mission!

Image courtesy: ISRO

New Delhi: As the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on early Monday successfully test launched its first ever reusable launch vehicle (RLV) from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, here are some amazing facts about the ambitious RLV-TD mission.

• Dubbed as India's very own space shuttle, RLV is the unanimous solution to achieve low cost, reliable and on-demand space access, according to ISRO.
• The RLV-TD was launched from Sriharikota on the coast of the Bay of Bengal in Andhra Pradesh at 7 a.m today.
• On this first flight, the RLV-TD will not be recovered, the data collected will be used to improve the designs, paving the runway to the final model.
• The 1.7 tonne winged RLV-TD was designed and built by a team of 600 ISRO scientists at a cost of about Rs 95 crore.
• The main objective of RLV-TD mission is to bring down the launch cost by 80 percent.
• The RLV-TD mission is described as "a very preliminary step" in the development of a reusable rocket, the final version of which is expected to take 10-15 years.
• Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstration Program or RLV-TD is a series of technology demonstration missions that have been considered as a first step towards realizing a Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO) fully re-usable vehicle.
• These technologies will be developed in phases through a series of experimental flights.
• RLV-TD has been configured to act as a flying test bed to evaluate various technologies, namely, hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, powered cruise flight and hypersonic flight using air-breathing propulsion.
• Apart from the US (NASA) and Russia (Roscomos), Japan (JAXA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have developed the RLV technology.