India’s budget mini space shuttle blasts off

ISRO made global headlines in 2013 after it successfully launched an unmanned mission to orbit Mars, spending just $73 million.-AFP

The shuttle was reportedly developed on a budget of just one billion rupees ($14 million), a fraction of the billions of dollars spent by other nations’ space programmes.

The Reusable Launch Vehicle, or RLV-TD, which is around the size of a minibus, hurtled into a blue sky over southeast India after its 7:00am (0130 GMT) lift off.