Space Ship

India has always been a country which can relate to the universe in space. The Indian Space Research Organization is the national space agency for India which develops space rockets, shuttles, satellites and conducts thorough research to examine space in ways others can only comprehend. The prime objective of ISRO is to develop space technology and its application to various national needs.

In November 2020, S Somanath, the director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre stated that the Indian space agency are tested their space satellite to check if it can land safely on the ground. This seems like a massive step to be able to examine space through deeper mediums, but all these space shuttles have a drawback, which is their prices. All of these space shuttles are expendable ones, which is why Director Somanath mentioned that India are trying to make a space shuttle that has a function of coming back to land for the next mission, thus reducing satellite launch costs as the Indian space agency wouldn’t have to rebuild space shuttles to put into orbit. The purpose of this invention is to make the space shuttle work like an aircraft, as it is supposed to ascend into orbit, stay there, re-enter and land on a runway, hence meeting the complexities of a rocket and an aircraft.

This test had been conducted by the ISRO successfully in the year 2016, where a space shuttle descended from an altitude of 65km, whilst re-entering at around Mach 5, which is five times the speed of sound. It also survived high temperatures due to its Thermal Protection System. The total flight duration for this mission was 770 seconds. This breakthrough will help the ISRO double the amount of space missions and increase the chances of finding valuable data.