India's mini space shuttle successfully completes test run as country joins race to make reusable rockets (3)

The rocket booster carrying RLV-TD lifted off from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, also known as Sriharikota Spaceport (map pictured) on Monday morning

The rocket booster carrying RLV-TD lifted off (pictured left) from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota at 7am local time (1.30am GMT) on Monday. After a successful flight of 91.1 seconds, the rocket burnt out

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has developed the 1.7-tonne (1,542 kilogram) winged shuttle (pictured getting ready for transportation) reportedly on a miniscule budget of one billion rupees ($14/£9.7 million) over a five-year period

But ISRO hopes to develop its own frugal shuttle, as it seeks to cash in on a huge and lucrative demand from other countries to send up their satellites.

The space agency successfully launched an unmanned mission to orbit Mars in 2013, after spending just $73 (£50) million, compared to the $671 (£464) million Nasa has set out for its Maven Mars mission.

India's shuttle was moved onto the launch pad on Monday morning (pictured). India faces stiff competition including from global companies which are developing their own reusable rockets after Nasa retired its space shuttle programme in 2011

Nasa's Space shuttle Columbia lifts off from Launch Pad 39A on April 12, 1981. Nasa shut down its Space Shuttle program. Between the first launch on April 12, 1981, and the final landing on July 21, 2011, NASA's space shuttle fleet - Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour - flew 135 missions