Lagatar24 Desk
Sriharikota, Oct 21: ‘TV-D1’ (Test Vehicle Development Flight 1) of the Gaganyaan Mission was declared successful on Saturday by S Somanath, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has successfully concluded the first of several test flights for the Gaganyaan mission, which will add India to the select group of nations that are able to launch a crewed spacecraft on their own.
Having encountered an engine ignition issue at 8:45 am, the test vehicle was launched on its second attempt at 10 am.
ISRO Chairman S Somanath while addressing the media stated,” I am very happy to announce the successful accomplishment of the TV-D1 mission. The purpose of this mission was to demonstrate the crew escape system for the Gaganyaan program through a test vehicle demonstration in which the vehicle went up to a Mach number, which is slightly above the speed of sound, and initiated an abort condition for the crew escape system to function.”
“The crew escape system took the crew module away from the vehicle, and subsequent operations, including the touch-down at sea, have been very well accomplished. and we have confirmation of the data for all of this,” he added.
Scientists were congratulated by ISRO Chief S Somanath following the crew escape module’s successful touchdown.
Mission Director S Sivakumar, speaking on the success said, ” This is like a never before attempt. It is like a bouquet of three experiments put together. We have now seen the characteristics of all three systems with what we wanted to test through this experiment or this mission. The test vehicle, the crew escape system, the crew module everything, we have perfectly demonstrated in the first attempt. All the systems performed well.”
“We had been at penance for the last 3 to 4 years and the D-day was today… We are very happy to be able to do it on the very first attempt,” he added.
An important step has been taken in India’s endeavor to show that it is possible to launch humans into space with this mission.
By launching a crew of three people into a 400 km orbit for a three-day trip and safely returning them to Earth by landing in Indian waters, the Gaganyaan project aims to demonstrate the potential of human spaceflight.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed that India pursue new and ambitious goals, such as establishing ‘Bharatiya Antariksha Station’ (Indian Space Station) by 2035 and sending the first Indian astronaut to the Moon by 2040, building on the success of the country’s space initiatives, which include the recent Chandrayan-3 and Aditya L1 missions.
