Gaganyaan mission's test flight module recovered, all data looks good: ISRO
Gaganyaan mission: The crew module that separated from the Gaganyaan mission's test vehicle has been successfully recovered from the Bay of Bengal, said Indian Space Research Organisation chairman S Somnath on Saturday.
"The crew module has been fully recovered from the sea (Bay of Bengal) and it has been brought to Chennai port. There has been no anomaly. All data looks very good. A series of missions-20 tests have to be done. Today's test was for the crew escape system," the ISRO chief said.
After being aborted at 8:45 a.m. today due to an issue with the engine ignition, ISRO successfully conducted the maiden test flight of the 'TV-D1' (Test Vehicle Development Flight 1) of the Gaganyaan Mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.
ISRO Chief Somanath stated that the mission's goal was to demonstrate the crew escape system, which was accomplished.
"I am very happy to announce the successful accomplishment of the TV-D1 mission. The purpose of this mission was to demonstrate the crew escape system for the Gaganyaan program through a test vehicle demonstration in which the vehicle went up to a Mach number, which is slightly above the speed of sound, and initiated an abort condition for the crew escape system to function," he stated.
Flight demonstration and evaluation of Test Vehicle subsystems; flight demonstration and evaluation of Crew Escape System including various separation systems; crew module characteristics; and deceleration system demonstration at higher altitudes and recovery were the mission objectives of the TV-D1 launch.
The Test Vehicle is a single-stage liquid rocket designed specifically for this abort mission. The payloads are the Crew Module (CM) and Crew Escape Systems (CES), both of which include fast-acting solid motors, as well as the CM fairing (CMF) and Interface Adapters.
This flight duplicated the abort situation during the ascent trajectory, which corresponded to the Gaganyaan mission's Mach number of 1.2. This mission is a crucial step forward in India's ambition to demonstrate that it is possible to send humans into space.
The Gaganyaan project envisions a demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a three-person crew into a 400-kilometre orbit for a three-day mission and safely returning to Earth by landing in Indian waters.
After the United States, Russia, and China, India will be the fourth country to launch a manned spaceflight mission.
- ANI
