India tests first indigenous space shuttle

India today successfully tested its first-ever indigenous space shuttle as its Re-Usable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD), which is capable of launching satellites into orbit around the earth and return to the atmosphere.

The test-flight was carried out from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh at 7:00 am. Nearly 20 minutes after its lift-off, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced that the "mission has been accomplished", our New Delhi correspondent reports.

The RIL-TD is being touted by ISRO experts as a cost-effective vehicle for launching satellites.

ISRO plans to test two more such prototypes before the final version which will be about six times larger at around 40 metres and will take off fourteen years later, according to our New Delhi correspondent.

After the test flight was declared successful, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, now on a visit to Iran, congratulated the scientists at ISRO and tweeted: "Launch of India's first indigenous space shuttle RLV-TD is the result of the industrious efforts of our scientists. Congrats to them."

The spacecraft was launched atop a nine-tonne rocket engine that has been designed to burn slowly to accommodate vertical lifting of a winged body.

After the launch, the space shuttle flew to a height of 70km and then landed in the Bay of Bengal some 500 kilometres from Sriharikota.

This is the first time ISRO has launched a winged flight vehicle which glided back onto a virtual runway in the Bay of Bengal.

The RLV-TD is a scaled-down model of the reusable launch vehicle.

RLV, being dubbed as India's own space shuttle, is the unanimous solution to achieve low cost, reliable and on-demand space access, according to ISRO scientists.