ISRO will launch its Re-Usable Launch Vehicle soon from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
Highlights
- India's first re-usable spacecraft, the RLV, will soon take a test flight
- It's pitted against SpaceX's Falcon 9 & Blue Origin's New Shephard rocket
- Both companies have already partially tested re-usable space shuttles
India's first re-usable spacecraft will soon take a test flight and will be pitted against the likes of SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Blue Origin's New Shephard rocket, in a race to master re-usable technology for space shuttles.
Even before India's frugal winged space shuttle, the RLV, is launch-ready, it faces stiff competition from aerospace manufacturers floated by world's top billionaires and supported by NASA - Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin. Both the companies have already partially tested re-usable space shuttles.
SpaceX has been able to land its Falcon-9 rocket onto a sea-based platform while Blue Origin landed its New Shepard rocket on land in Texas, USA.
Dr Jean-Yves Le Gall, President, French Space Agency in Paris told NDTV, "I think reusable technology is quite promising. We have to see what will go in the future but all important space players today must have capabilities of reusable technology. And this is exactly what India is going to do."
Today it costs about $ 20,000 to send a kilogram in space but with re-usable technology engineers want to make space affordable by bringing the cost down by ten times.