Nellore: India on Monday launched its first mini space shuttle that will in its final avatar launch satellites at a fraction of the current cost.
In its first technology demonstrator test, the swadeshi space shuttle took off atop a booster rocket at the Spaceport at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, at 7 am and landed in the designated path in the Bay of Bengal after 770 seconds. The entire mission cost about Rs 95 crore. In its final form, both the space shuttle and its booster rocket will be reused for subsequent missions.
Rocket to be ready in 10-15 years, says Isro
In current practice, the rocket that launches satellites is a write-off. The last rocket that Isro launched, a PSLV, cost Rs 130 crore. The space shuttle when fully operational is expected to cut down that cost. Isro said the mission was a “very preliminary step” in the development of a reusable rocket, whose final version is expected to be available in 10 to 15 years.
The final stage will be a fully reusable vehicle, currently being called ‘Two Stage To Orbit’ which will be six times as big as the one launched on Monday. Unlike the test model that landed in the Bay of Bengal, the TSTO will land at Sriharikota.
The 6.5-metre winged space shuttle weighing 1.75 tonnes, or about the same as an SUV, separated from the booster 91.1 seconds after take-off at a height of about 56 km and ascended to 65 km. From there, the Reuseable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator began its descent at around Mach 5 or five times the speed of sound.
After surviving the high temperatures during re-entry with its thermal protection system, the shuttle glided down to the defined landing spot in Bay of Bengal, at a distance of about 450 km from Sriharikota. The vehicle was tracked during its flight from ground stations at Sriharikota and a ship-borne terminal.
Tech specifications
Mission: Hypersonic flight experiment
6.5 M
Length of the ‘aeroplane’
1.75 TN- Weight of the space shuttle
70 km
The height the vehicle travelled before being released for its re-entry into the atmosphere
10 min
Time from liftoff to splashdown
10-15 years
Time required for the final version
Rs 95 crore
Invested into the RLV-TD project
Ultimately a kind of a runway like one used to see for American space shuttles will be made in Sriharikota.
The elite club
Space X
Elon Musk’s privately funded programme focuses on developing a set of new technologies for an orbital launch system that may be reused
Buran
Buran was the first spaceplane to be produced as part of the Soviet Buran programme. It is the only Soviet reusable spacecraft to be launched
Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle was a reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system by the NASA. It was used on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011.
Blue Origin
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is also interested in space. Blue Origin, the space travel company Bezos founded, launched a surprise test flight in 2015.
