International News

BANGALORE, India,(APP/AFP) – India successfully launched
its first model space shuttle on Monday, a top official claimed, as New Delhi joined the race to develop a reusable rocket to make space travel easier and cheaper.
The winged shuttle blasted off on a rocket from the southeastern
spaceport of Sriharikota at about 7:00am (0130 GMT), with television footage showing it streaming through a clear sky.
The shuttle, about one sixth the size of a normal one, was meant to
reach an altitude of 70 kilometres (43 miles) before gliding back down and splashing into the Bay of Bengal 10 minutes later.
“The lift-off was at 7am from the first launch pad here,” India’s
space chief Devi Prasad Karnik told AFP.
“We have successfully accomplished the RLV mission as a technology
demonstrator,” he said.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), known for its low
costs, has developed the winged shuttle called the Reusable Launch Vehicle or RLV-TD reportedly on a miniscule budget of one billion rupees ($14 million).
Monday’s test mission was a crucial step towards eventually
developing a full-scale, reusable shuttle to send up satellites in the future.