Modi congratulates scientists for launching space shuttle

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congratulated the scientists for successfully launching India's maiden winged reusable launch vehicle (RLV) as a technology demonstrator. He took to twitter to convey his wishes to the team."We have successfully accomplished the RLV-TD mission. The lift-off was at 7.00 a.m. from the first launch pad here," ISRO director Devi Prasad Karnik told IANS after the shuttle returned to the Earth.   The 1.7-tonne RLV was launched from ISRO's spaceport here in Andhra Pradesh, about 80 km northeast of Chennai off the Bay of Bengal coast.The mission has qualified India to enter the elite club of space-faring nations like the US, Russia and Japan, which developed and used RLVs for their space missions over the years. "The long-term objective of this mission is to reduce the launch cost by 80 percent of the present cost by using a reusable vehicle," Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) director K. Sivan told IANS ahead of the test.IANS