The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on October 21 successfully launched the test flight of its Gaganyaan Mission. Speaking at Sriharikota near Chennai after the launch, ISRO Chief S Somnath said he is “very happy to announce the successful accomplishment of the TV-D1 mission”.
“The purpose of this mission is to demonstrate the crew escape system for Gaganyaan, 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,” Somnath added.
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He further stated that the test crew escape system took the crew module away from the vehicle and subsequent operations including the touch-down at the sea were “very well accomplished”, adding that they now have “a confirmation of the data for all of this”.
Also Read: A look at what’s up and coming from India’s space research agency
What happened?
Early on Saturday, ISRO had to reschedule the lift-off of its maiden TV-D1 mission from 8 am to later due to an unsuccessful first attempt. The rescheduled launch at 10 am was successful. While the reason for the change in timing was not known immediately as per PTI news agency it might be due to rainfall and cloudy weather conditions.
After the first failed initiation, Somnath had said the planned lift off could not happen following an anomaly that will be analysed. He said that the engine ignition of the TV-D1 rocket did not happen over time.
The space agency then said that the errors have been identified and corrected and the second launch was scheduled for 10 am today, when it was successfully launched.
Also Read: Explainer | What is ISRO’s Gaganyaan Mission? Significance, launch date, other details
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Updated: 21 Oct 2023, 11:28 AM IST