ISRO Building India's First Space Shuttle

The world's bid goodbye to Atlantis and the space shuttle program and now NASA plans to place the veteran space shuttle in a museum in the Kennedy Space Centre. Even as this unfolds NASA's Indian counterpart, ISRO, is gearing up to kick start its own space shuttle, very, very soon.

Takes to the skies

According to reports on NDTV, ISRO is currently working on a project, whose success would herald a new dawn in the history of India’s presence in space missions. Placed in a secret ISRO facility in Kerala, the fully re-usable satellite launch vehicle is slowly being put together to play its role in creating history. Covered by heat-resistant tiles, ISRO's latest project would essentially be an unmanned space shuttle vehicle. 

Reports suggest that, at least for the first few flights the launch will be in a vertical position, like that of a rocket. It will then be dropped back into the sea. Later on, though, it will have a normal landing, just like the other aircrafts. 

At the moment, the above mentioned is just about all the information that has been made available about the project so far.