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SETTING the stage for its planned mission, Gaganyaan, to take Indian astronauts into space by 2024, the Indian Space Research Organisation successfully carried out Saturday, after overcoming a technical glitch, a crucial test of the crew escape system.
The launch of the mission, Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission (TV-D1), scheduled for 8 am, was delayed due to weather factors and a snag in the rocket’s ignition detected at 8.45 am put the mission on hold. However, scientists quickly identified and corrected the “anomaly” and return to the launchpad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota for a launch at 10 am.
The Test Vehicle, a rocket developed by Gaganyaan aims to send humans into space on a Low Earth Orbit of 400 km for three days and bring them safely back to the Earth.
The crew module made a successful splashdown in the Bay of Bengal around 10 km from the coast of Sriharikota at the programmed velocity and in the nominal time of a little over nine minutes after lift-off.
“This launch takes us one step closer to realising India’s first human space flight program, Gaganyaan. My best wishes to our scientists at ISRO,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X.
The crew module was recovered by the Indian Navy using a dedicated vessel and diving team later in the day. “The Crew Module in the safe hands of @indiannavy,” ISRO said on social media Saturday evening.
The Crew Module
in the safe hands of @indiannavy #Gaganyaan pic.twitter.com/jfH0oQlmae— ISRO (@isro) October 21, 2023
“We have had full accomplishment of the TV-D1 mission. The purpose of this mission was to demonstrate the crew escape system through a test vehicle demonstration in which the vehicle has gone up to a Mach no. (1.2 Mach) — which is the speed of sound — and initiated an abort condition for the Crew Escape System mission,” ISRO chairman S Somanath said soon after the splashdown.
“The Crew Escape System took the module away from the test vehicle and subsequently the operation of the separation of the Crew Module from the Crew Escape System occurred with parachutes opening and the crew module touched down in the sea. The required velocity has been very much accomplished. We have got confirmation of the data for all of this,” the ISRO chairman said.
Somanath also explained the launch going into hold mode in the final second of the countdown at 8.45 am.
“After going through the nominal lift-off process, there was a hold issued by the ground computer which is called the Automatic Launch Sequence (ALS) computer which detected a sort of non-confirmation for the engine to continue with the thrusting for further go. This happened due to an anomaly in the system. We could identify it very fast and correct it,” the ISRO chairman said.
“To make the stage ready again, it took some time to refill the gases. After this was done we went through the proper Automatic Launch Sequence which checked every health component of the vehicle and finally the mission computer and the ground check up computer authorized the launch for take-off,” Somanath said.
“I am very happy that our team could understand that in case of any anomaly how things can be rectified and come back as fast as possible,” he said. “This is a big training for the entire team here to prepare for the Gaganyaan program. I am very happy the launch could take place within the allocated launch window. We will come back with more analysis and data for this mission on recovery of the crew module. We are (getting) visuals from the sea and the drone cameras,” the ISRO chief added.
The mission director, S Shivakumar, said three experiments in the mission had all performed well. “The test vehicle, the crew module, the crew escape system, everything has been demonstrated in the first attempt except for the hitch which was not a problem at all,” he said.
The Gaganyaan program director and executive for crew module realization, R Hutton, called today’s test a major milestone and a “great motivator.”
“In the Gaganyaan mission the most important aspect is the safety of the crew…this has been demonstrated in this mission where we have simulated an abort and the crew escape system carried the crew module away like a bird takes away its chicken to a safe place,” Hutton said.
…. and the slow-motion video of the TV-D1 Lift-off.
(No audio)
#Gaganyaan pic.twitter.com/K1LpVtu3bf— ISRO (@isro) October 21, 2023
“Though the Gaganyaan vehicle is robust and very reliable… we cannot leave anything to chance and, after all, if any malfunction happens there has to be a system in the launch vehicle which is called the crew escape which will take the crew module away to safety,” he said.
Earlier in the morning, the countdown for the launch had entered the final second for lift-off when the rocket seemed to stall on the launch pad — when the countdown from 10 had reached down to 1.
The launch was announced as being put on hold by the mission control. Somanath was heard telling scientists that the launch “will not be possible today”.
“Engine ignition did not take place. The Automated Launch Sequence started as planned but did not complete. The launch will be scheduled after correcting the anomalies,” he announced.
The abort mission was carried out by ISRO before its full-fledged unmanned test flight into space and back for the crew module on ISRO’s human-rated LVM3 rocket (an upgraded version of its heavy lift GSLV Mk III rocket) planned in 2024.
The TV-D1 is the first of two abort missions to test crew safety mechanisms for the Gaganyaan mission. The new test vehicle is a low-cost basic rocket built by ISRO for the exclusive purpose of testing systems instead of waiting for PSLV and GSLV launches to test systems.
The new rocket is expected to help the space agency avoid the large costs it would incur otherwise in testing the crew module for the human space flight program which has a budget of around Rs 9000 crore.
As ISRO prepares for its maiden human spaceflight or the Gaganyaan mission the space agency has put safety of the crew as the central objective of the mission. This has resulted in ISRO convincing the Union Government that a 2022 deadline (set by PM Modi on August 15, 2018) would have to be relaxed in order to ensure a safe and successful mission.
The crew module is at the heart of a human space mission and it needs to be safe to carry astronauts, under very high heat and pressure conditions, into space. It requires a reliable escape mechanism in the event of an emergency.
In today’s TV-D1 mission the Crew Module was empty but in an actual human mission the capsule is where the astronauts are “contained in a pressurized earth like atmospheric condition.” The TV-D1 mission had an unpressurised version of the crew module.
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“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,” ISRO said.
The module used in the flight on October 21 has been used to “capture the flight data for evaluation of the performance of various systems,” ISRO said.
Indian Navy units recovered the crew module from the Bay of Bengal after the splashdown. The recovery operation was a result of extensive planning, training of Naval divers, formulation of SOPs and joint communication by combined teams of Indian Navy and ISRO, officials said.
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