ISRO's Reusable Launch Vehicle

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will fly a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) this March as a technology demonstration. This will be the first step towards developing a full-fledged vehicle that can go to space, inject an orbiter and come back to land. Reusable vehicles reduce the cost of satellite launches by up to ten times. Moreover, in future, a much developed version of the vehicle could be used for manned missions.
Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre deputy director S Somanath said Isro has completed ground tests on the vehicle and is in the final phase of conducting a hypersonic test flight and landing in water.
Fitted with solid strap-on thrusters similar to the ones used in PSLVs, the reusable vehicle will fly at five times the speed of sound (mach 5) to reach an altitude of more than 100 km. This would last for barely five minutes. After ascent, the vehicle will take a 180 degree turn in what scientists call a 2G manoeuvre before activating its control system for re-entry and eventual splash-landing. But after activating its fin and wing controls, the vehicle will glide a bit before starting its descent.
The next experiment would be to land the vehicle on a 2 km runway after releasing it from an aircraft from a height of about 5 km. The third step would be to take it to a higher altitude and try ground landing.
The series of experimental flights of RLV will include hypersonic flight experiment (HEX), landing experiment (LEX), return flight experiment (REX) and scramjet propulsion experiment (SPEX).
The multiple demonstration missions will lead to what Isro envisions as a `two stages to orbit' (TSTO) fully reusable vehicle. While India spends Rs.300 crore upwards for satellite launches, reusable vehicles hold the key to more affordable launches. Today , putting a 1kg object in space costs about $5,000. The US and Russia, which put human beings in space as early as the 1960s, are also working on futuristic reusable vehicles for satellite launches.