Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will test the crew escape system of India’s first human space flight mission ‘Gaganyaan’ on October 21 between 7 am to 9 am.
In simple language, if there is a malfunction in the rocket during the mission, the system that will bring the astronaut inside safely to Earth will be tested.
Gaganyaan Mission’s Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1) will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota.
This flight will have three parts – single stage liquid rocket made for abort mission, crew module and crew escape system. The environment inside the crew module will not be the same as it will be in a manned mission.
The test vehicle will lift the crew module up. Then an abortion like situation will be created. At an altitude of about 17 km, when the rocket will travel at 1.2 times the speed of sound, the crew module and crew escape system will separate.
The crew module will be taken about 2 Km from here and will be landed in the sea, 10 Km from Sriharikota.
In this mission, scientists will test whether the abort trajectory is working properly. How will the astronauts land safely if the rocket malfunctions during the actual mission? A total of four test flights are to be sent. TV-D1 will be followed by D2, D3 and D4.
The first unmanned mission of Gaganyaan mission is planned for early next year. Unmanned mission means no human will be sent into space. After the success of the unmanned mission, there will be a manned mission in which humans will go to space.
Earlier, ISRO had successfully tested the drag parachute for the Gaganyaan mission in Chandigarh between 8th to 10th August. This parachute will help in safe landing of astronauts. This will reduce the speed of the crew module, as well as keep it stable. For this, conditions like landing of astronauts were created during testing.
In ‘Gaganyaan’, a team of 3 members will be sent to the Earth’s orbit 400 KM above for a 3-day mission. After this the crew module will be landed safely in the sea. If India is successful in its mission then it will become the fourth country to do so. America, China and Russia have done this before.
On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin of Soviet Russia remained in space for 108 minutes.
On May 5, 1961, America’s Alan Shepherd stayed in space for 15 minutes.
On October 15, 2003, China’s Yang lived in space for 21 hours.
In the year 2018, PM Modi had announced the Gaganyaan mission in his Independence Day speech. A target was set to complete this mission by 2022. However, it got delayed due to the Covid pandemic. Now it is likely to be completed by the end of 2024 or early 2025.
ISRO
is training four astronauts for this mission. Classroom training, physical fitness training, simulator training and flight suit training are being provided at the Astronaut Training Facility established in Bengaluru.
ISRO also plans to expand the team for future manned missions. A budget of about Rs 90.23 billion has been allocated for the Gaganyaan mission.
