Bengaluru: ISRO announced its plans to initiate unmanned flight tests for the Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission, recently. The test vehicle is set to launch between 7 am and 9 am on October 21 from the Sriharikota spaceport, demonstrating the crew escape system’s performance.
In a social media message on X (formerly Twitter), the national space agency, headquartered in India, said, “Mission Gaganyaan: The TV-D1 test flight is scheduled for October 21, 2023, between 7 am and 9 am from SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota.”
ISRO Chairman S. Somanath stated on Saturday that three additional test vehicle missions will follow the TV-D1 test flight on October 21 as part of the Gaganyaan program.
The Gaganyaan project’s goal is to showcase ISRO’s human spaceflight capabilities by sending a crew into orbit at an altitude of 400 km and safely returning them to Earth, landing in the Indian Sea waters.
The Test Vehicle Development Flight (TV-D1) is designed to test the crew module (CM) that will transport Indian astronauts during the human spaceflight, expected to take place next year. The TV-D1 test flight involves launching the unmanned crew module into outer space, returning it to Earth, and recovering it in the Bay of Bengal after touchdown.
Somanath, also the Secretary, Department of Space, said, “The first test vehicle flight (of the Gaganyaan mission) will be conducted on October 21. After that, we have planned for three more test missions, D2, D3, D4. We will hold thorough tests during the test flight sequence,” while talking to reporters in Rameshwaram.
According to ISRO, the test vehicle is a single-stage liquid rocket specially developed for this abort mission. It carries the Crew Module (CM) and Crew Escape System (CES) with their rapid-acting solid motors, along with CM fairing (CMF) and Interface Adapters.
ISRO explained that the Crew Escape System with the Crew Module will disconnect from the Test Vehicle at an altitude of about 17 kilometres. Afterward, the abort sequence will run automatically, beginning with the separation of the CES and the deployment of several parachutes. This will ultimately lead to the safe landing of the Crew Module in the sea, approximately 10 kilometres from the Sriharikota coast.
The crew module is where astronauts will be housed in a pressurised Earth-like atmospheric environment during the Gaganyaan mission. The CM for the Gaganyaan mission is at various stages of development.
In the case of TV-D1, the CM is a version without pressurisation, and it has finished its assembly and testing. It is equipped with a full set of parachutes, recovery aids actuation systems, and pyrotechnic devices used for spacecraft separation. The avionics systems in the CM are configured in a dual-redundant mode for navigation, sequencing, telemetry, instrumentation, and power. The CM in this mission is extensively instrumented to capture flight data for the evaluation of various systems, ISRO said.
Following its landing in the Bay of Bengal, the crew module will be retrieved using a specialised vessel and a team of divers from the Indian Navy.
