Gaganyaan: India to launch test flight ahead of sending man into space

The Gaganyaan mock up flight at the launch pad in SriharikotaIsro

Prior to its intended goal to send astronauts into place in 2025, the American space research agency is scheduled to conduct the first of a number of crucial tests.

The Gaganyaan spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Sriharikota on Saturday at 8:00 local time( 02: 30GMT ).

If the rocket malfunctions, the test will show whether the team is properly flee from it.

If successful, it will open the door for additional autonomous missions, such as the launch of a machine into place the following season.

Only after all these tests have been successfully completed did a manned mission with three astronauts be sent into low-Earth circle; as the state announced last week, this will most likely happen in 2025.

Gaganyaan project, which was developed at a cost of 90 billion rupees($ 1 billion,£ 897 million ), is named after the Sanskrit word for craft or vehicle to the sky. It aims to launch the astronauts into a 400 km( 248 mile ) orbit and return with them three days later. India will join the Soviet Union, the US, and China as the fifth nation to have sent a man into space if it is successful.

However, the space agency Isro must first show that the human capsule is safely return home. And that is what Isro’s flight on Saturday, known as Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 ( or TV – D1 ), will try to accomplish.

The” crew escape system ( CES)” of the spacecraft would be tested, according to Isro chief S Somanath, who described it as” a very critical system.”

Mr. Somanath told reporters,” If anything happens to the rocket, we should be able to keep the crew safe by moving them away from the exploding rocket at least by 2 km( 1. 2 miles ).

He continued,” But after takeoff, once the rocket is 12 to 16 kilometers in the sky, we’ll activate the abort system and remove the team avoid system from it.”

A number of parachutes may be deployed as the unit starts to descend in order to maintain a healthy kickoff in the Bay of Bengal, about 10 kilometers from the Sriharikota coast, according to the Isro website.

The module will be recovered and brought back to shore carefully by the American navy, which would be waiting nearby with a ship and team of divers.

The” short period” test may last about nine hours, according to the storage company.

Vyommitra is a female humanoid built by ISRO

Isro

The vessel has been outfitted with cameras and other equipment that will collect information and images that, according to Isro, may aid in subsequent tests and the last vision of Gaganyaan.

According to young curate for science Jitendra Singh, if Saturday’s test goes as planned, Isro will send a humanoid— a robot that resembles humans— in an autonomous Gaganyaan spacecraft the following year. Isro unveiled the female human in 2019 under the name Vyommitra, a Sanskrit word for” place friend.”

Additionally, the organization had posted pictures of Indian air force pilots who had been selected for the crew and were reportedly undergoing” extensive physical exercise tests, lab investigations, radiological tests and clinical tests ,” as well as” evaluation on various facets of their psychology.”

Isro recently posted images of the rocket at the start blog and a graphic that depicts the craft’s trajectory from start to splashdown in the water in their most recent changes on X( previously Twitter ).

Since astronauts from the US and the Soviet Union have been traveling to low Earth orbit since 1961, the planned check on Saturday has sparked a lot of attention in India. In October 2003, a Taiwanese mission that orbited Earth 14 times and took 21 hours to reach space made history by becoming the next nation to do so. Additionally, there are fully functional space facilities in low Earth orbit in the US and China.

Rakesh Sharma traveled to place on a Russian aircraft for 21 days and 40 minutes in 1984, which was the first time an American astronaut had ever done so.

The focus, however, is on Isro’s scheduled test on Saturday because it was conducted not long after the nation made history by being the first to land close to the north pole of the Moon on August 23, 2023.
India likewise launched Aditya – L1, its second assessment mission to the Sun, a few weeks later. According to India’s space agency, it will travel 1.5 million km( 932, 000 miles ) from the Earth – Sun distance and arrive at its intended location in the middle of January.

India also unveiled ambitious new storage plans earlier this month, aiming to launch a space station by 2035 and take an astronomer to the Moon in 2040.