India test-launches first space shuttle

NEW DELHI, May 23 (UPI) -- India's space agency successfully launched its first space shuttle on Monday. The unmanned shuttle is known as the Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator, or RLV-TD.

The vehicle was powered to an altitude of 40 miles by an HS9 solid rocket booster before making a supersonic atmospheric re-entrance and a controlled glide descent into the Bay of Bengal.

"In this flight, critical technologies such as autonomous navigation, guidance and control, reusable thermal protection system and re-entry mission management have been successfully validated," Indian Space Research Organization officials wrote in a blog update.

The test flight lasted just less than 13 minutes.

"We are very excited," ISRO spokesman Deviprasad Karnik told CNN. "The team has been working on the project for the past 10 years, with the past five spent on designing the actual model."

Karnik cautioned that there is much work to be done -- more than a decade's worth.

The final model of RLV-TD is to be six times larger. It's not expected to launch until 2030.

In the United States, Elon Musk and SpaceX are leading the race to perfect reusable rocket technology capable for carrying satellites and eventually astronauts into space.

India's efforts could make rocket launches even cheaper, however.

The recently-launched RLV model cost roughly $13.3 million to design and build. Currently, SpaceX spends between $60 million and $90 million to build its Falcon 9 rockets.