Big moment for India on October 21: ISRO to launch first test flight for Mission Gaganyaan

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), as an attempt to ensure a complete success in its ambitious project of sending Indian astronauts into Space, on October 21 will launch an uncrewed flight test. The 13-hour countdown for the launch commenced on October 20th. The ambitious project ‘Mission Gaganyaan’ will be launched post the success of the three trial flights, which aims to send humans into space on a Low Earth Orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission and bring them safely back to earth.

The launch of TV-D1 Test Flight on Saturday can be watched live from 7.30 am. The Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1) will demonstrate the performance of the Crew Escape System. The test vehicle mission is aimed at studying the safety of the crew module and crew escape system in bringing Indian astronauts back to Earth in the eventual Gaganyaan mission.

Three uncrewed missions are planned before Gaganyaan Mission in 2025

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had chaired a high-level meeting to assess progress of India’s Gaganyaan Mission and to outline the future of India’s space exploration endeavours. The Department of Space presented a comprehensive overview of the Gaganyaan Mission, including various technologies developed so far such as human-rated launch vehicles and system qualification.

Around 20 major tests, including 3 uncrewed missions of the Human Rated Launch Vehicle (HLVM3) were planned and on October 21, the first demonstration flight is scheduled. During the meeting, the launch of Gaganyaan Mission was affirmed in 2025.

Building on the success of the Indian space initiatives, including the recent Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L1 Missions, PM Modi directed that India should now aim for new and ambitious goals, including setting up ‘Bharatiya Antariksha Station’ (Indian Space Station) by 2035 and sending the first Indian to the Moon by 2040.

To realise the vision set by the prime minister, the ISRO is all set to launch the first test flight on October 21st. According to the ISRO, a single-stage liquid propulsion rocket, equipped with a crew module and Crew Escape System (CES), is slated for a lift-off from the first launch pad at the spaceport.

The ISRO said that the test vehicle mission with this crew module is a significant milestone for the overall Gaganyaan programme as a nearly complete system is integrated for the test. It further stated that the success of this test flight would set the stage for the remaining qualification tests and uncrewed missions, leading to the first Gaganyaan programme.

Mission Gaganyaan:
TV-D1 Test Flight

The test flight can be watched LIVE
from 0730 Hrs. IST
on October 21, 2023
at https://t.co/MX54CwO4IUhttps://t.co/zugXQAYy1y
YouTube: https://t.co/75VtErpm0H
DD National TV@DDNational#Gaganyaan pic.twitter.com/ktomWs2TvN

— ISRO (@isro)

The crew module and the crew escape system are the payloads in the rocket. The crew module is a habitable space with an Earth-like environment in space for the crew. It consists of a pressurised metallic inner structure and an unpressurised external structure with thermal protection systems. The Test Vehicle Abort Mission (TV-D1) will launch the crew escape system and crew module at an altitude of 17 km which are expected to make a safe touchdown in the sea.

After the touchdown on the earth, the Indian Navy will lead the recovery of TV-D1 crew module from the Bay of Bengal, which will be approximately 10 km from Sriharikota coast. Recovery ships positioned at a safe range in sea waters will approach the crew module and a team of divers will attach a buoy, hoist the crew module using a ship crane and bring it to the shore.

In the first test flight on Saturday, the crew module would capture flight data for evaluation of the performance of various systems onboard, enabling the scientists to gain knowledge on the performance of the vehicle. Through ‘Mission Gaganyaan’, India will become only the fourth country to send a human into space after the Soviet Union, the US and China. It is being said by the ISRO that after the success of the first test flight, a robot that resembles a human, will be sent in the next test flight of the unmanned Gaganyaan next year.