India's mini space shuttle successfully completes test run as country joins race to make reusable rockets (2)

India's launch of its own space shuttle is seen as a crucial step towards developing a full-scale, reusable one to send up satellites in the future. It shows the country is now a serious space-faring nation

'In subsequent test flights, we will attempt to land the reusable vehicle at a specific location on land like an aircraft does on a runway so that we can again use it for launching more satellites,' Dr K. Sivan, director of a space research centre developing the vehicles at ISRO, told AFP.

'The exercise (on Monday) will enable us to collect data on hypersonic speed, autonomous landing' and other useful information, Dr Sivan said before the launch.

India faces stiff competition including from global companies which are developing their own reusable rockets after Nasa retired its space shuttle programme in 2011.

Reusable rockets would cut costs and waste in the space industry, which currently loses millions of dollars in jettisoned machinery after each launch.

Billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin have already successfully undertaken their own test launches.

SpaceX has even carried out lucrative Nasa and military contracts already using its Dragon capsule to travel to the ISS.

Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency are also developing similar technology and are in testing stages.

SpaceX has managed to land three rockets from space back on Earth - two on sea and one on land, while Blue Origin's New Shepard successfully completed a third launch and vertical landing in April this year.