India must not dilly-dally on building a space shuttle

Indian Space Research organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched the Reusable Launch Vehicle — Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) on May 23, 2016 as scheduled. This is an important step in the direction of launching a winged body (a spacecraft with delta wings) in the space.

By doing this, ISRO has taken the first step towards realising the dream of having an operational space shuttle in place. However, it may take a decade’s time to actually have one.

This RLV must have crossed more than five times the speed of sound while entering the Earth's atmosphere, and hence, is expected to have also conducted a hypersonic flight experiment (HEX) during its travel and re-entry.

A space shuttle has multiple utilities. It could be used to launch satellites into the space, for undertaking human space missions and also have various benefits for any space station in the future. The first experiment carried out on May 23 was actually conducted on a dwarf model of the proposed space shuttle. The launched RLV was almost one-sixth of the size of a actual space shuttle.

Also read - RLV-TD is a baby step, working space plane is still miles away for ISRO

This vehicle was flown up to 70km and was made to fall in the ocean. During this test, ISRO tested guiding and navigational techniques and collected information that would assist them to design future missions.

Presently, it costs about $20,000 to send a kilogram of weight in space, but India aspires to make space travel affordable by bringing the cost down by ten times, via its frugal engineering.

As next steps, ISRO is expected to conduct tests like LEX (Landing Experiment), REX (Return Flight Experiment) and SPEX (Scramjet Propulsion Experiment) in the coming few years. However, the question is, can India afford to wait for more than a decade to realise this dream?

Indian space vehicle is pitted against the likes of SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket (both supported by NASA and owned by billionaires - Elon Musk's and Jeff Bezos's respectively), in a race to master reusable technology for rocket launchers.

These two private space players have already succeeded in recovering the first stage of the rocket back to the Earth. Space X has recovered back the first stage of its rockets, both on solid ground and in the ocean. It is expected that these recovered rockets would not require much repair and renovation between launches. These can be put in use immediately, allowing a significant increase in launching frequency and reduction in costs.

It is important to note that the satellite launch market is showing significant growth, and if India has to capture this market, then it should develop a systematic plan. Presently, with the help of its PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket launcher, till date, India has launched 57 satellites for different countries.

Now, India is proposing to increase the frequency of the launches by privatising the PSLV. Currently, ISRO is engaging the private industry not only for the supply of spares for its satellites, but they are keen to transfer the launch technology. This is being done to ensure that in future, the job of lauching satellites, mainly to low earth orbit, would be done by private industry.

Also read - How ISRO changed the way the world looks at India

In case of RLV, the question is, can ISRO afford to wait for 10-15 years more to develop a fully indigenous system? It is important for ISRO to understand that if it wants to play the role of an effective launch service provider, it needs to make RLV operational in much lesser time.

This is only possible if ISRO engages international partners and motivates the Indian industry to participate.

For this purpose the government would also be required to increase the budget of ISRO significantly. The success of RLV needs to be welcomed, but it is equally important for ISRO to ensure that the final product gets operational in much lesser time than projected presently.