India is set to launch a scale model of a reusable spacecraft on Monday

    'No pictures of the "shuttle." Strange.'

The picture clearly shows a 'winged' rocket as described in the article.

    "The episode has the smell of government propaganda."

Not sure from where you get the smell of government propaganda. ISRO has been credited for some of the most successful launches. They sent a probe to mars in the first attempt. There seem to be smart folks working there.

I don't understand the downvotes. There's always a place for contrasting opinions, and /especially/ when they're expressed politely, they deserve a polite response.

I have the same doubts. I'd love to see a picture of the real thing.

Here is the initial video footage of the RLV-TD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LsK5um-hDw

Gravity movies budget was 100 million USD and ISRO's mars mission budget was 75 million USD. So I don't get the smell of government propaganda.

After all India ain't North Korea.

SpaceX's current price for the Falcon Heavy is already below $2k/kg

"The Falcon Heavy, aims to lower the cost to $1,000 per pound [or $2,204.62 per kg]." (old article) [0]

However, the pricing page for SpaceX shows the Falcon Heavy runs $90 Million USD for a launch of 54,400 kg to LEO (on a fully expendable vehicle, so no refunds). That works out to be $1,654 per kg (or $750 per pound, under their original estimate). Reusing the first stage rockets reduces the lift profile but the costs are projected to be about 2/3 of their original value, so I'd suspect the overall cost to be even lower - around $1,300/kg or so.

[Edit] Elon Musk is on record as saying his ultimate goal is $100 per pound, or $254/kg. That presumes daily flights.[2] In a Senate meeting in 2004 he said, "Ultimately, I believe $500 per pound [$1,270 per kg] or less is very achievable."[3] Depending on discounts on the Falcon Heavy, SpaceX is sitting around that cost level.

[0] http://www.airspacemag.com/space/is-spacex-changing-the-rock...

[1] http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities

[2] http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/07/21/138166072/space...

[3]http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=12774

Actually, they have a commercial launch arm and do compete in global market. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antrix_Corporation).

I agree. Even if the launch vehicle were to fail, there's a large amount of value for India in building up the significant infrastructure (both technological and intellectual) involved in having broad space capabilities. In the next five or so years India will pass France to become the fifth largest economy in nominal terms; in the next 15-20 years they'll probably overtake the UK, Germany and Japan to move into third place. It definitely makes sense for them to keep investing in space regardless of the outcome on something like this vehicle.

It is a mix of ignorance and trying to exaggerate/sensationalize everything.

As per point 6 and 7 on http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/india-all-set-to-launch-its-o... , it seems that India does not intend to dump unwanted stuff in the sea

India has been launching from 1960s. It is not "a nation that's just getting started with spaceflight"

because it is a pathetic comment. Thank you

The fact of the matter is, space has only really become feasible for the private sector in the last few decades in the US and a few other countries. The overriding reason for this has been large government funded research programs funding the sunk cost initial R&D for the private sector. A secondary reason is the now widespread usage of commercial satellites. Countries with private space companies also have long-standing aeronautical engineering companies.

India lacks all of these things. Shifting all of the space program to private companies would be a disaster there.

Companies rarely finance scientific endeavors because the payout on them is too long - and many pure science efforts like landing on Europa offer no possible payback plan. Science in space cannot exist without government largess.

Also, one of the primary reasons for space research has historically been weapons deployment (ICBM). Private firms are not going to fund that sort of development - unless the government pays them to do so.

I am tired of people applying a free market rant to everything they run into. Any economist will tell you that the "free market" only really applies in very particular markets (perfect competition), and even those have a common trade/law/infrastructure system established by a government. Space is actually better suited to oligopolies, which are almost as far away from a free market as possible and practically dictate a need for regulation.