India Prepares Flight Tests for First Gaganyaan Mission

India will soon conduct testing on the Gaganyan spacecraft (photo: twitter @isro)

JAKARTA - The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will soon conduct an uncrewed Flight Test of the Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1) for the Gaganyaan mission, the spacecraft they are developing.

This aircraft is scheduled to fly on October 21. ISRO will fly Gaganyaan from the Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC)-SHAR in Sriharikota at around 7 or 9 am local time.

Considering that only days are left, ISRO confirmed that TV-D1 is in the final stages of preparation. Later, when the vehicle test is carried out, this aircraft will carry a Crew Module (CM) and Crew Escape Systems (CES) payload.

In a series of processes, the Gaganyaan will be flown to simulate vehicle abort when the climbing trajectory corresponds to the Mach 1.2 number. After that, CM and CES will be separated from the vehicle at an altitude of 17 kilometers.

Cancellation will be carried out starting from CES separation and parachute deployment, then CM will land at sea. CM's landing is predicted to be 10 kilometers from Sriharikota beach.

The Gaganyaan mission is a mission to launch three crew members into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Although this mission requires only a crew of three, ISRO is appointing four astronauts to undergo special training at the Astronaut Training Facility, Bengaluru.

For your information, CM is a place designed for astronauts when the atmospheric conditions are as pressurized as Earth's. This module was created to accommodate the entire deceleration and recovery system of the Gaganyaan aircraft.

The CM has a complete parachute, recovery aids, actuation system, and pyro devices such as pyro valves, bolts, and so on. CM is also designed to be able to capture flight data so that the system can carry out performance evaluations.