India on Monday launched a scale model of a reusable spacecraft, a project that in time could pit the nation against the US billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in the race to make access to space cheaper and easier.
The winged vessel – one-fifth of full size – blasted off on a rocket from Sriharikota base on the south-eastern coast, reaching an altitude of 70 kilometres and gliding back at supersonic speeds to Earth for a splashdown in the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Space Research Organisation said.
The 11-tonne Indian prototype is claimed to have cost just one billion rupees (Dh53.1 million) to develop. By comparison, Mr Musk's SpaceX's Falcon Nine rocket costs £41m (Dh218m) to produce
India put a probe into Mars orbit in 2014 for $74m, demonstrating a combination of technological capability and low costs that chimes with the goal of more frequent space travel being championed by SpaceEx and Mr Bezos’ Blue Origin. Both companies seek to curb costs by making rockets reusable and are conducting test launches more often.
“While India’s effort is behind the likes of SpaceX and Blue Origin, there are still others further behind and all of the solutions remain to be proven, both technically and from a cost perspective,” said David Wireman, a Dallas-based managing director and aerospace specialist at consultancy AlixPartners. “Although the technical hurdles are quite high, it is reasonable to believe India can be successful.”
India plans to spend about 75bn rupees on its entire space programme in the year through March 2017, a fraction of the yearly US$19bn-dollar budget of Nasa.
The reusable space vehicle is supposed to provide a cost-effective and reliable option for operations such as launching satellites, according to the Indian space agency. Mock-ups on government websites resemble the long-defunct Nasa space shuttles.
With today’s success, India could in future play a bigger role in the commercial satellite launch market. The global satellite industry brought in $203bn in revenue in 2014, the latest year for which Satellite Industry Association data are available. Some $5.9bn of that came from launches.
“Space is no longer a domain that’s dominated by the U.S. and Europe,” said Ajey Lele, a New Delhi-based senior fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. “Asian nations now making forays.”
India launched its first space rocket in 1963 and its first satellite in 1975. An unmanned mission to the moon that ended in 2009 showed water formation there may be occurring. The Mars probe beat China to the red planet after an almost yearlong voyage.
The prime minister Narendra Modi controls the department of space, whose successes give the premier an opportunity to market India as a destination for high-technology investment.
The nation remains about eight years away from a full-scale version of the reusable space vehicle, and still has to cross the hurdle of steering the vessel safely back to land rather than water, according to the Indian space agency.
SpaceX in December pulled off a soft, vertical touchdown after the two-stage rocket propelled its payload. Less than month earlier, Mr Bezos sent one of his test rockets to the edge of space and landed it safely back on Earth.
“India has to start somewhere, sometime,” Mr Lele said. “That time is now.”
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