Last month, I blogged about India’s Space Research Organization (ISRO), was in the final countdown stage of building and launching its very own version of a ‘space shuttle’. On May 23, the organization successfully launched an un-manned reusable rocket approximately 43 miles into the air, which was followed by a descent back to Earth at five times the speed of sound landing in the Bay of Bengal. ISRO released a statement explaining that this test launch validated technologies such as autonomous navigation, reusable thermal protection systems and re-entry mission management.
The project cost close to $14 million over the course of five years. “One of the reasons that India has been able to punch well above its financial weight in the space race is due to its considered approach. Rather than practical experiments, the country spends plenty of time scouring data from other countries’ space missions. That way, it can identify errors that entities like NASA and Roscosmos made previously and find shortcuts around them,” according to Engadget.
Live Mint reported that ISRO’s next steps will be a test analyzing the ship’s landing capabilities since this experiment primarily focused on its flight systems.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
