Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

• The Indian National Committee for Space Research(INCOSPAR) was established by the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962 under the Department of Atomic Energy.

• INCOSPAR became ISRO in 1969 and is now under the Department of Space.

• It is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLV)

• RLV is a space plane that can be recovered and reused for future space flights.

• It bears a resemblance to an aircraft, featuring a fuselage, nose cap, double delta wings, and paired vertical tails.

• It is intended to advance various technologies, including hypersonic flight (HEX), autonomous landing (LEX), return flight experiment (REX), powered cruise flight, and Scramjet Propulsion Experiment (SPEX).

• Evolution: In 2010, ISRO initiated the Reusable Launch Vehicle – Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) project for a two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) launch vehicle. 

• In 2016, the first trial of RLV-TD occurred, successfully landing at the predetermined site in the Bay of Bengal, 425 km east of Sriharikota.