The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) would conduct an unmanned flight test related to the Gaganyaan miss𝄹ion tomorrow.
The launch of a single-stage liquid rocket will signal ISRO's journey towards its ambitious human space 🐲flight programme.
﷽I✨SRO will conduct the first crew module test to ensure the safety of astronauts.
I🔜SRO aims to send humans into ♐space on a Low Earth Orbit of 400 km for a three-day Gaganyaan mission and bring them safely back to earth.
Unlike other missions by the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency, ISRO would attempt a s🎐uccessful launch of its Test Vehicle (TV-D1), a single-stage liquid rocket, scheduled to lift off from the first launch pad at this spaceport at 8 am on Saturday, PTI reported.
The Test Vehicle mission with this Crew Module is a significant milestone for the overall Gaganya🦋an programme as a nearly complete system is integrated for a flight test.
The success of this test flight would set the stage for the remaining qualifi🦂cation tests and unmanned missions, leading to the first Gaganyaan programme with Indian astronauts, which is expected to take shape in 2025.
The Crew Module System is a habitable space with an Eart🐷h-like environment in space for the crew. It is of double-walled construction consisting of a pressurised metallic 'inner structure' and an unpressurised 'external structure' with 'thermal protection systems'.
It houses the crew interfaces💫, life support system, avionics, and deceleration systems. It is also designed for re-entry to ensure the safe💜ty of the crew during the descent till touchdown.
The Crew Module underwent various test🎃ing at ISRO centers before it was inꦍtegrated into the launch complex in Sriharikota, located about 135 km east of Chennai.
The entire test flight sequence on Saturday is expected to be brief as the Test Vehicle Abort💙 Mission (TV-D1) will launch the Crew Escape Systems and Crew Module at an altitude of 17 km which are expected to make a safe touchdown in the sea, about 10 kms from the eastern coast of Sriharikota.
They wo😼uld be later retrieved by the Navy from the Bay 🙈of Bengal.
The TV-D1 vehicle uses a modified VIKAS engine with a Crew Modulꦓe and Crew Escape System mounted at its fore end.
The vehicle is 34ജ.9 metres tall and h♔as a lift-off weight of 44 tonne.
The structure of the TV-D1 flight is a sinꦿgle-walled unpressurised aluminium structure with a simulated thermal protection system.
The Test Vehicle D1 mission aims for an in-flight ab♛ort demonstration of Crew Escape System with the newly developed Test V🃏ehicle followed by Crew Module separation and safe recovery.
Test objectives:
Mission🔯 objectives include flight demonstration and evaluation of test vehicles, crew escape systems, Crew Module characteristics, and deceleration systems demonstration at higher a🅘ltitude and its recovery.
Through this campaign, scientists aim to ensure the safety of the crew who would be actually sent in the Crew Module on an LVM-3 rocket onꦚ the Gaganyaan mission.
Scie✨ntists have also lined up a ser꧟ies of tests with the beginning of the TV-D1 flight programme on Saturday.
ISRO Chairman S Somanath on test:
ISRO Chairman S Somanath had recently said similar kinds of abort 🤪missions would be conducted much before the human space flight programme.
The prerequisites for the Gaganyaan mission include the development of many critical technologies, including human-rated launch🔯 vehicles for carrying the crew safely into space, a life support system to provide an earth-like environment to crew in space, and crew emergency eꦆscape provision.
The rocket to be launched in space would be a human🌸-rated LVM 3 -- a vehicle which would carry the Orbital Module to an intended Low Earth Orbit 👍of 400 km on the Gaganyaan mission.
However, for the Test Vehicle Abort Mission 1(TV-D1), the Crew Module is an unpressurised v♐ersion and it has the overall size and weight of actual Crew Module on the𒐪 Gaganyaan mission.
The Crew Module has all the systems for deceleration and recovery, a se✅t of parachutes among many others.
In the first test flight on Saturday, the Crew Module would capture the flight data for evaluation of ꩲthe performance of various systems onboard to serve the scientists.
