India’s premier space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO has said that it is planning to test a reusable space shuttle during the month of August.

The agency said that it will conduct the first test of the fully Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) that is aimed at enabling cheaper and more affordable space missions in the future. The test flight of the indigenously developed RLV- Technology Demonstrator will be help in the second half of July of August after the launch of the PSLV- C28 from Sriharikota, according to M.C. Dathan, outgoing Director at theVikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC).

The RLV might help ISRO reduce the cost of launchfrom the present level of $5,000 per kg to $ 500 per kg.During the first trail, the hypersonic flight experiment will be conducted during which the RLVwill be launched up to an altitude of 70 km.ISRO will use a scaled down version of space shuttle and it will be attached to a strap-on booster of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket along with 9 tons of fuel. The space shuttle is designed to detach itself from the rocket after reaching an altitude of 70km and return to the surface of the

The shuttle is designed to glide back to the ground at a speed of 2km per second and its fall will be controlled by specially fitted fins and other parts. The agency is not planning to use parachutes to soften its landing.