Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday successfully conducted first test flight of the Gaganyaan mission from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota after it was aborted at 8:45am due to a problem in the engine ignition.
The brief test flight sequence launched the crew escape system and crew module at an altitude of 17 km followed by a safe touchdown in the sea, about 10 km from Sriharikota in Bay of Bengal.
“Mission Gaganyaan TV D1 Test Flight is accomplished. Crew Escape System performed as intended. Mission Gaganyaan gets off on a successful note”, posts space agency on X.
The three main parachutes of Gaganyaan TV-D1 were deployed minutes after the successful test vehicle launch.
“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 programme,” ISRO chief S Somanath said soon after the splash.
He also explained the reason for aborting the mission on the scheduled time. “After going through the nominal lift-off process, there was a hold issued by the ground computer, which is called the automatic launch sequence computer, that detected a non-conformance for allowing the engine to continue the thrusting to go further. This happened due to a monitoring anomaly in the system, which is why we could identify it very fast and correct it.”