Before Gaganyaan human mission, first unmanned test flight on Oct 21
New Delhi, October 10
National space agency ISRO will launch the first unmanned test flight on October 21 in preparation of India’s human spaceflight mission Gaganyaan in 2024. There will be two preliminary missions before the actual human mission goes up to space next year.
The must-haves
- Human-rated launch vehicle for carrying crew safely to space
- Life support system to provide an earth-like environment to crew members in space
- Crew emergency escape provision
- Evolving crew management aspects for training, recovery and rehabilitation of crew
“The launch of Gaganyaan Test Vehicle Development flight (TV-D1) is scheduled on October 21,” Union Minister of State (Independent charge) Science and Technology and MoS of PMO and Space Jitendra Singh said at a gathering to felicitate ISRO scientists associated with the Chandrayaan Mission here today. For the mission’s success, ISRO will test the efficacy of the crew escape system. These tests will be conducted at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. Crew module will carry the astronauts during the human spaceflight mission Gaganyaan to outer space in 2024. The test involves launching a crew module to outer space and bringing it back to earth safely and recovering it after touchdown in the Bay of Bengal. Navy personnel have already started mock operations to recover the module.
The success of the test will set the stage for the first unmanned “Gaganyaan” mission and ultimately manned mission to outer space in low earth orbit, informed the Minister. Before the ultimate manned “Gaganyaan” mission, there will be a test flight next year—a second precursor mission after the one on October 21. The second mission will carry Vyommitra, a female robot astronaut to space.
