India has successfully launched  the first technology demonstrator of Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The technology aids in the launch of satellites into Earth’s orbit, which re-enter the atmosphere.

At 7am, a booster rocket with the RLV-TD lifted up from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. At an altitude of 50km, the launch vehicle separated from it. Then the RLV-TD or winged space plane moved to another 20 km and started its descent. At an hypersonic speed of more than 5 Mach, it re-entered to earth's atmosphere and touched down the Bay of Bengal between Chennai and the Andaman archipelago. It was nearly 10 minutes mission, known as hypersonic flight experiment, from liftoff to splashdown.

According to an ISRO spokesman, the mission was successfully accomplished. "Everything went according to the projectory,” he said adding that “the winged space plane will not be recovered from the sea.”

The successful ISRO experiment is just a preliminary step towards developing reusable launch vehicles. Several RLV-TD flights will have to be undertaken prior to becoming a reusable launch system to put satellites into orbit.

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, former director, M.C. Dathan said, "The mission was successful. And the RLV-TD is healthy and floating on the sea."

RLV-TD is a series of technology demonstration missions that have been considered as a first step towards realising a Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO) fully re-usable vehicle, ISRO said.

- Sumana