India to fly own space shuttle in a year: Isro

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Bengaluru , April 1: In a year’s time, India will fly an indigenous version of a space shuttle.
On its first flight, the rocket-powered craft, shaped like an aircraft, will climb 60 km into the earth’s atmosphere and glide back to earth. Over subsequent flights, the journey into outer space will be of longer duration and distances in order to test its reliability and capability to carry satellites into orbit.


“There are many advantages but there are several technological challenges involved in this project as well. We have to see how it functions during the first flight and take it forward. We must also look at the critical cost-versus-benefit factor,” Dr K. Radhakris-hnan, chairman, Indian Space Research Organi-sation (Isro), told this newspaper. He said Isro would spend about Rs 30 crores on the technology demonstrator — the first flight.
His colleagues explained that the key advantage of such a re-usable rocket will be a drastic reduction in the cost of launching satellites. “With a conventional rocket like the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), the cost of putting a satellite in space works out to about $15,000 to $20,000 a kg. These figures will come down because the rocket can be used for many flights. We will know the exact cost of the launch after a couple of flights of the reusable rocket,” they said.
Once its reliability is proven, the rocket will be used for human space flight, Isro scientists said.
During the first flight, various cutting-edge technologies, such as autonomous landing, aerodynamics and powered cruise flight, will be evaluated. On subsequent flights those like re-entry technology will be assessed, the scientists added.

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