New Delhi:

It’s going to be a flight of failure, which will set up ISRO for success.

Attempting to prepare for every possibility, which is now a part of its ethos, the Indian Space Research Organisation will carry out an abort test for the human space mission, Gaganyaan, on Saturday. 

A similar fail-safe approach had been taken for Chandrayaan-3 and had helped ISRO script history by making India the first country to land nearer the south pole of the Moon in August. The stakes, though, are much higher this time because the lives of humans will be involved. 

Speaking exclusively to NDTV, Dr Unnikrishnan Nair, director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, which is an ISRO research centre, said the most important thing for the agency in the Gaganyaan mission is the safety of the crew.

“The first mission is demonstrating the crew escape system during flight. We should ensure that, at any stage during the ascent phase, if anything goes wrong with the vehicle, the safety of the crew is ensured. The crew escape system, which will operate during the first stage of the vehicle, has to work in different conditions,” he said.

The test is scheduled for 8 am from the first launchpad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The crew escape system, which will have the unpressurised crew module housing the astronauts during the actual Gaganyaan flight, will be fixed atop the test vehicle. 

“When the vehicle reaches an altitude of 12 km and achieves the transonic condition, the thrust of the vehicle will be terminated and motors of the escape system will be activated. That will take the crew module plus crew escape system to an altitude of about 17 km. At that altitude, the crew module will be released from the escape system,” Dr Nair said. 

He said the crew module has been designed in a way that it can turn by itself and orient itself in the required direction. Once that is done, parachutes will be deployed and the module will drop slowly into the sea about 10 km from the launch pad. The crew escape system and the launch vehicle will also fall into the sea, but at a distance from the crew module.

The entire test is expected to last about nine minutes.

Gaganyaan, which is expected to launch in 2025, aims to take a crew of 3 members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3-day mission and bring them back safely to Earth by landing in Indian waters.

ISRO Chairman S. Somanath addresses the 50th Convention of the All India Management Association at the Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi, September 27, 2023.
| Photo Credit: ANI

In a crucial step in India’s ambitious programme to lift its astronauts into space, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will test its crew escape system (CES) on October 21, 2023. The flight, from Sriharikota, will test if the CES can protect the astronauts should the launch vehicle malfunction. ISRO has designated this mission TV-D1.

According to an ISRO statement, the test will begin between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. When the launch vehicle – fit with the crew module and the CES – reaches a velocity of 1.2 Mach and an altitude of 17 km, an abort command will be issued. The module with the CES will separate from the rocket and deploy a series of parachutes, and eventually splash down in the Bay of Bengal, where Navy personnel will recover it. The whole sequence will be uncrewed.

In the ultimate mission that will hoist the astronauts into a low-earth orbit in 2024 or 2025, the rocket will be the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM-3). But that on October 21 will be a single-stage rocket powered by liquid propellants. It was purpose-built for the TV-D1 mission and wheeled to the launch pad on October 15.

ISRO Chairman S. Somanath spoke to T.S. Subramanian for The Hindu about this test, the crew module, and preparations for the human spaceflight programme, a.k.a. ‘Gaganyaan‘. Excerpts from the interview follow:

You will be soon testing the crew escape system of the Gaganyaan project, which will ultimately take the Indian astronauts into space. Have you made the LVM-3 rocket more powerful to carry the big crew module?

Gaganyaan has many, many elements [and] components. The rocket is one part of it. The rocket LVM-3, which will take the crew to orbit, is being strengthened. The process of strengthening it is already completed. That is called the ‘human rating’ of the vehicle. It is already over. All systems and engines have been tested and confirmed. So our rocket – human-rated – is virtually completed.

There is another element called the crew module and the crew escape system. The new crew module is under development. It is being tested. There is no capability in India to manufacture it. We have to get it from outside. That work is currently going on.

We wanted a lot of technology to come from outside, from Russia, Europe, and America. But many did not come. We only got some items. That is going to take time. So we have to develop systems such as environmental control and life support systems. We call it ‘ECLSS’. That has to be developed internally. We have developed its engineering model. This is basically for controlling the temperature, oxygen, wastage process, vibration, fire hazards, and so many [other] things.

We have to make a crew escape system. That is, in the case of any damage to the rocket, the crew will [have to] be taken away from the rocket and saved.

Finally, there is a system called Integrated Vehicle Health Management System, or IVHMS, which has intelligence. It will sense an imminent failure and take abort action. It will autonomously decide. This system is under development. These are new things. We have to test all of them over a period of time.

Hundreds of tests are planned: helicopter-based tests, test-vehicle-based tests, rocket-based tests, abort tests, unmanned [tests], robotic missions, and so on. All these will be done. For the next one year to a year and a half, this will be our programme. Every day, there is some test happening. Every subsystem and component goes through hundreds of tests. When a major test happens, the press will know about it.

The test vehicle test will happen in October [i.e. October 21]. It will be an abort test. The launch vehicle will take the unmanned crew module up to a height of 17 km. Then we will say the mission is ‘aborted’. It will [have to] be saved using the crew escape system. It will bring back the module to the sea and we will collect it.

In the real mission, will three Indian astronauts go in the crew module to low-earth orbit?

Finally how many people will go, we will decide later. Not now. We don’t have to send three… We can also send one in the first mission. There is no hurry to send three. We can send one by one. Ultimately, we can send even 10 astronauts. Why limit to three? That is not a measure of anything. If you are able to send a human being into space, that is it.

It depends on our confidence at that point of time… Only when we are very sure of ourselves, we will send human beings into space. Otherwise, we will not do that. In my opinion, it will take more time than we really thought of. We are not worried about it. What we are worried about is that we should do it right the first time.

The schedule is secondary here. Even if I send a person tomorrow, I am not going to achieve anything other than claim that I have sent this person. The capability development is most important. Technology development is most important. Some claims I made last year are not important. I am focusing on capability development.

Tiruchirappalli:

After the successful Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L1 mission, India is now looking at human exploration in space. Chandrayaan-3 project director P Veeramuthuvel, while speaking on the Gaganyaan mission, said that a roadmap is there and the launch will be soon.

Speaking at an event, Mr Veeramuthuvel said, “Soft landing in itself is a technology. India is the fourth country to have that. We mastered that. Then only human exploration is possible. You know Gaganyaan program is coming up. It’s a human exploration program. We have the roadmap and we will have the launch soon.”

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has started preparations for unmanned flight tests as part of the Gaganyaan mission.

A post on the ISRO’s official handle on social media platform X read, “Mission Gaganyaan: ISRO to commence unmanned flight tests for the Gaganyaan mission. Preparations for the Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1), which demonstrates the performance of the Crew Escape System, are underway.”

According to ISRO, the success of this test flight will set the stage for the remaining qualification tests and unmanned missions, leading to the first Gaganyaan mission with Indian astronauts.

The agency in a release regarding the First Crew Module for the Gaganyaan test flight said that the first development flight Test Vehicle (TV-D1) is in the final stages of preparation.

While the rocket itself will be constructed elsewhere, all internal systems for Gaganyaan will be developed in Ahmedabad.

ISRO’s Ahmedabad facility will be responsible for building two critical systems for the Gaganyaan mission- the cabin systems and communication systems.

The cabin will house three seats for astronauts, along with a lighting system and two display screens to monitor various parameters inside the cabin.

Gaganyaan represents India’s first manned space mission, and it aims to send three astronauts into an orbit of 400 km above the Earth’s surface.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today released pictures of the Gaganyaan spacecraft which is set to take humans to space in December 2024. The space agency also said that they will soon start unmanned flight tests for the mission.

“ISRO to commence unmanned flight tests for the Gaganyaan mission. Preparations for the Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1), which demonstrates the performance of the Crew Escape System, are underway,” the agency said in a tweet.

Mission Gaganyaan:
ISRO to commence unmanned flight tests for the Gaganyaan mission.

Preparations for the Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1), which demonstrates the performance of the Crew Escape System, are underway.https://t.co/HSY0qfVDEH@indiannavy#Gaganyaanpic.twitter.com/XszSDEqs7w

— ISRO (@isro) October 7, 2023

The Gaganyaan project would demonstrate India’s capability of taking a crew of two to three members to a circular orbit of about 400 km around the earth for a one-to-three days mission and bring them back safely to earth, by landing in a designated location in Indian sea waters.

“The success of this test flight will set the stage for the remaining qualification tests and unmanned missions, leading to the first Gaganyaan mission with Indian astronauts,” ISRO said.

The agency in a release regarding the First Crew Module for Gaganyaan test flight said that the first development flight Test Vehicle (TV-D1) is in the final stages of preparation.

“The Test Vehicle is a single-stage liquid rocket developed for this abort mission. The payloads consist of the Crew Module (CM) and Crew Escape Systems (CES) with their fast-acting solid motors, along with CM fairing (CMF) and Interface Adapters. This flight will simulate the abort condition during the ascent trajectory corresponding to a Mach number of 1.2 encountered in the Gaganyaan mission,” the release said.

The Crew Module after integration underwent various electrical testing, at ISRO’s facility in Bengaluru, including an acoustic test and was dispatched to SDSC-SHAR on August 13, the release added.

Preparations are on for the Gaganyaan Mission’s Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1), which is likely to be launched by the end of October 2023.
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which is planning to commence uncrewed flight tests for the Gaganyaan mission, has started to make preparations for the Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1).

“Mission Gaganyaan: ISRO to commence unmanned flight tests for the Gaganyaan mission. Preparations for the Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1), which demonstrates the performance of the Crew Escape System, are under way,” the space agency posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Though the space agency has not announced the date for the TV-D1, it is expected to take place by the end of October 2023 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota (SDSC-SHAR).

According to ISRO, the Crew Module (CM) is where the astronauts are contained in a pressurised earthlike atmospheric condition during the Gaganyaan mission.

“The CM for the Gaganyaan mission is in different stages of development. For the TV-D1, the CM is an unpressurised version that has completed its integration and testing and is ready to be shipped to the launch complex. This unpressurised CM version has to have an overall size and mass of actual Gaganyaan CM. It houses all the systems for the deceleration and recovery. With its complete set of parachutes, recovery aids, actuation systems and pyros. The avionics systems in CM are in a dual redundant mode configuration for navigation, sequencing, telemetry, instrumentation and power. The CM in this mission is extensively instrumented to capture the flight data for evaluation of the performance of various systems. The CM will be recovered after touchdown in the Bay of Bengal, using a dedicated vessel and diving team from the Indian Navy,” ISRO said. It added that the TV-D1 is in the final stages of preparation.

“The Test Vehicle is a single-stage liquid rocket developed for this abort mission. The payloads consist of the CM and Crew Escape Systems (CES) with their fast-acting solid motors, along with CM fairing (CMF) and Interface Adapters. This flight will simulate the abort condition during the ascent trajectory corresponding to a Mach number of 1.2 encountered in the Gaganyaan mission. CES with CM will be separated from the Test Vehicle at an altitude of about 17 km. Subsequently, the abort sequence will be executed autonomously commencing with the separation of CES and deployment of the series of parachutes, finally culminating in the safe touchdown of CM in the sea, about 10 km from the coast of Sriharikota,” it added.

The CM after integration underwent various electrical testing, at ISRO’s facility in Bengaluru, including an acoustic test and was dispatched to SDSC-SHAR on August 13. At SDSC, it will undergo vibration tests and pre-integration with the CES, before final integration to the Test Vehicle at the Launch Pad. This Test Vehicle mission with this CM is a significant milestone for the overall Gaganyaan programmes a near-complete system is integrated for a flight test. The success of this test flight will set the stage for the remaining qualification tests and unmanned missions, leading to the first Gaganyaan mission with Indian Astronauts.

The Gaganyaan mission aims to demonstrate the capability to launch human beings (three crew members) to low earth orbit and bring them back safely to earth by landing them in either the Bay of Bengal or the Arabian Sea.

For the Gaganyaan mission, four astronauts who have been selected are undergoing crew training and Gaganyaan Mission-specific training at the Astronaut Training Facility in Bengaluru.

ISRO has successfully completed the CE20 E13 engine hot test for the Gaganyaan qualification and 22-tonne thrust qualification.
| Photo Credit: PTI

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully completed the CE20 E13 engine hot test for the Gaganyaan qualification and 22-tonne thrust qualification.

The engine was tested at ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC), Mahendragiri on September 22.

The CE20 engine is a vital component, serving as the powerhouse of the Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) responsible for propelling the upper stage (C25) of the LVM3 vehicle. It has demonstrated its capability by successfully operating at a thrust level of 19 tonnes in six successive LVM3 missions, including the Chandrayaan-2, Chandrayaan-3, and two commercial OneWeb missions.

Also read: Explained | After Chandrayaan-3, what has ISRO planned?

“To enhance the payload capacity of the LVM3 vehicle, ISRO is upgrading the CE20 engine. The upper cryogenic stage is being transformed into the C32 stage with increased propellant loading capacity, and the engine is being modified to operate at a higher thrust level of 22 tonnes. To ensure the engine’s readiness for critical missions, a series of ground hot tests were deemed necessary. The CE20 engine hardware referred to as E13 was selected for both Gaganyaan qualification and 22-tonne thrust level operations,” the space agency said.

The journey to achieving a 22-tonne thrust capability began with E13 HT-01, a test focused on engine tuning, successfully conducted for a 50-second duration. This initial test set the stage for the upcoming trials. E13 HT-02 marked a significant milestone, conducted on August 3, with the engine operating flawlessly for an impressive 720 seconds. This test demonstrated the engine’s reliability and stability.

“The third hot test, E13 HT-03, was the pivotal moment in completing the CE20 engine qualification for the Gaganyaan program. On September 22, this test was conducted at the state-of-the-art test facility located at IPRC, Mahendragiri. During this test, the CE20 engine operated at the coveted 22-tonne thrust level for a duration of 670 seconds. Both the engine and the testing facility performed flawlessly, meeting all the performance parameters,” ISRO said.

It added that the successful completion of E13 HT-03 signifies the culmination of rigorous testing and the readiness of the CE20 engine for the Gaganyaan program. “With all the necessary tests completed, the CE20 engine is now poised for the demanding requirements of the Gaganyaan mission and future endeavours,” it added.

The Test Vehicle D-1/Crew Escape System mission of the Gaganyaan mission is likely to be conducted in the last week of October.