News Analysis India

Tag: Gaganyaan

  • ISRO successfully conducts test vehicle mission ahead of human space flight programme

    By PTI

    SRIHARIKOTA: Nerves gave way to smiles at the spaceport here as delays and an anomaly-triggered ‘hold’ forced ISRO scientists to revise the launch schedule of a test vehicle carrying payloads related to the country’s ambitious human space flight mission, Gaganyaan which soared into skies after initial hiccups.

    Students gather for the launch of ISRO’s TV-D1 test flight of Mission Gaganyaan, at Satish Dhawan Space Station, in Sriharikota | PTI

    Following a two-hour delay and nerve-wracking moments after the engine of TV-D1 failed to ignite initially, ISRO scientists put the mission on course 75 minutes later when they launched the rocket with precision and achieved the goal of Crew Module and Crew Escape separation that was welcomed with loud cheers at the Mission Control Center here.

    TV D1 Mission was fully achieved, ISRO announced.

    Mission GaganyaanTV D1 Test Flight is accomplished.Crew Escape System performed as intended.Mission Gaganyaan gets off on a successful note. @DRDO_India@indiannavy#Gaganyaan
    — ISRO (@isro) October 21, 2023
    The payloads later splashed into the sea as planned, a development that witnessed jubilation. The Gaganyaan programme aims to send humans into space on a Low Earth Orbit of 400 km for three days and bring them safely back to Earth.

    Initially slated for 8 a.m., on Saturday, the launch suffered delays twice, totaling 45 minutes, before an anomaly forced a rescheduling for 10 a.m.

    READ MORE | With ‘Gaganyaan’ in the works, ISRO and NASA aim to send Indian astronaut to ISS in 2024 Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

    SRIHARIKOTA: Nerves gave way to smiles at the spaceport here as delays and an anomaly-triggered ‘hold’ forced ISRO scientists to revise the launch schedule of a test vehicle carrying payloads related to the country’s ambitious human space flight mission, Gaganyaan which soared into skies after initial hiccups.

    Students gather for the launch of ISRO’s TV-D1 test flight of Mission Gaganyaan, at Satish Dhawan Space Station, in Sriharikota | PTI

    Following a two-hour delay and nerve-wracking moments after the engine of TV-D1 failed to ignite initially, ISRO scientists put the mission on course 75 minutes later when they launched the rocket with precision and achieved the goal of Crew Module and Crew Escape separation that was welcomed with loud cheers at the Mission Control Center here.

    TV D1 Mission was fully achieved, ISRO announced.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Mission Gaganyaan
    TV D1 Test Flight is accomplished.
    Crew Escape System performed as intended.
    Mission Gaganyaan gets off on a successful note. @DRDO_India@indiannavy#Gaganyaan
    — ISRO (@isro) October 21, 2023
    The payloads later splashed into the sea as planned, a development that witnessed jubilation. The Gaganyaan programme aims to send humans into space on a Low Earth Orbit of 400 km for three days and bring them safely back to Earth.

    Initially slated for 8 a.m., on Saturday, the launch suffered delays twice, totaling 45 minutes, before an anomaly forced a rescheduling for 10 a.m.

    READ MORE | With ‘Gaganyaan’ in the works, ISRO and NASA aim to send Indian astronaut to ISS in 2024 Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

  • ISRO gears up for maiden human space flight programme with launch of test vehicle mission

    By PTI

    SRIHARIKOTA: The launch of a single-stage liquid rocket on Saturday will signal ISRO’s journey towards its ambitious human space flight programme, Gaganyaan when the first crew module test to ensure the safety of astronauts will be conducted by the space agency here.

    ISRO aims to send humans into space on a Low Earth Orbit of 400 km for a three-day Gaganyaan mission and bring them safely back to Earth.

    Unlike other missions by the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency, ISRO would attempt a successful launch of its Test Vehicle (TV-D1), a single-stage liquid rocket, scheduled to lift off from the first launch pad at this spaceport at 8 am on October 21.

    The Test Vehicle mission with this Crew Module is a significant milestone for the overall Gaganyaan programme as a nearly complete system is integrated for a flight test.

    The success of this test flight would set the stage for the remaining qualification tests and unmanned missions, leading to the first Gaganyaan programme with Indian astronauts, which is expected to take shape in 2025.

    The Crew Module System is a habitable space with an Earth-like environment in space for the crew.

    It is of double-walled construction consisting of a pressurised metallic ‘inner structure’ and an unpressurised ‘external structure’ with ‘thermal protection systems’.

    It houses the crew interfaces, life support system, avionics, and deceleration systems.

    It is also designed for re-entry to ensure the safety of the crew during the descent till touchdown.

    The Crew Module underwent various testing at ISRO centres before it was integrated into the launch complex in Sriharikota, located about 135 km east of Chennai.

    The entire test flight sequence on Saturday is expected to be brief as the Test Vehicle Abort Mission (TV-D1) will launch the Crew Escape Systems and Crew Module at an altitude of 17 km which are expected to make a safe touchdown in the sea, about 10 km from the eastern coast of Sriharikota.

    They would be later retrieved by the Navy from the Bay of Bengal.

    The TV-D1 vehicle uses a modified VIKAS engine with a Crew Module and Crew Escape System mounted at its foreend.

    The vehicle is 34.9 metres tall and has a lift-off weight of 44 tonnes.

    ALSO READ | Gaganyaan: First unmanned flight abort test on Oct 25

    The structure of the TV-D1 flight is a single-walled unpressurised aluminium structure with a simulated thermal protection system.

    The Test Vehicle D1 mission aims for an in-flight abort demonstration of the Crew Escape System with the newly developed Test Vehicle followed by Crew Module separation and safe recovery.

    Mission objectives include flight demonstration and evaluation of test vehicles, crew escape systems, Crew Module characteristics, and deceleration systems demonstration at higher altitudes and its recovery.

    Through this campaign, scientists aim to ensure the safety of the crew who would be actually sent in the Crew Module on an LVM-3 rocket on the Gaganyaan mission.

    Scientists have also lined up a series of tests with the beginning of the TV-D1 flight programme on Saturday.

    ISRO Chairman S Somanath had recently said similar kinds of abort missions would be conducted much before the human space flight programme.

    The prerequisites for the Gaganyaan mission include the development of many critical technologies, including human-rated launch vehicles for carrying the crew safely into space, a life support system to provide an earth-like environment to the crew in space, and crew emergency escape provision.

    The rocket to be launched into space would be a human-rated LVM 3 — a vehicle that would carry the Orbital Module to an intended Low Earth Orbit of 400 km on the Gaganyaan mission.

    However, for the Test Vehicle Abort Mission 1(TV-D1), the Crew Module is an unpressurised version and it has the overall size and weight of the actual Crew Module on the Gaganyaan mission.

    The Crew Module has all the systems for deceleration and recovery, a set of parachutes among many others.

    In the first test flight on Saturday, the Crew Module would capture the flight data for evaluation of the performance of various systems onboard to serve the scientists. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

    SRIHARIKOTA: The launch of a single-stage liquid rocket on Saturday will signal ISRO’s journey towards its ambitious human space flight programme, Gaganyaan when the first crew module test to ensure the safety of astronauts will be conducted by the space agency here.

    ISRO aims to send humans into space on a Low Earth Orbit of 400 km for a three-day Gaganyaan mission and bring them safely back to Earth.

    Unlike other missions by the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency, ISRO would attempt a successful launch of its Test Vehicle (TV-D1), a single-stage liquid rocket, scheduled to lift off from the first launch pad at this spaceport at 8 am on October 21.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    The Test Vehicle mission with this Crew Module is a significant milestone for the overall Gaganyaan programme as a nearly complete system is integrated for a flight test.

    The success of this test flight would set the stage for the remaining qualification tests and unmanned missions, leading to the first Gaganyaan programme with Indian astronauts, which is expected to take shape in 2025.

    The Crew Module System is a habitable space with an Earth-like environment in space for the crew.

    It is of double-walled construction consisting of a pressurised metallic ‘inner structure’ and an unpressurised ‘external structure’ with ‘thermal protection systems’.

    It houses the crew interfaces, life support system, avionics, and deceleration systems.

    It is also designed for re-entry to ensure the safety of the crew during the descent till touchdown.

    The Crew Module underwent various testing at ISRO centres before it was integrated into the launch complex in Sriharikota, located about 135 km east of Chennai.

    The entire test flight sequence on Saturday is expected to be brief as the Test Vehicle Abort Mission (TV-D1) will launch the Crew Escape Systems and Crew Module at an altitude of 17 km which are expected to make a safe touchdown in the sea, about 10 km from the eastern coast of Sriharikota.

    They would be later retrieved by the Navy from the Bay of Bengal.

    The TV-D1 vehicle uses a modified VIKAS engine with a Crew Module and Crew Escape System mounted at its foreend.

    The vehicle is 34.9 metres tall and has a lift-off weight of 44 tonnes.

    ALSO READ | Gaganyaan: First unmanned flight abort test on Oct 25

    The structure of the TV-D1 flight is a single-walled unpressurised aluminium structure with a simulated thermal protection system.

    The Test Vehicle D1 mission aims for an in-flight abort demonstration of the Crew Escape System with the newly developed Test Vehicle followed by Crew Module separation and safe recovery.

    Mission objectives include flight demonstration and evaluation of test vehicles, crew escape systems, Crew Module characteristics, and deceleration systems demonstration at higher altitudes and its recovery.

    Through this campaign, scientists aim to ensure the safety of the crew who would be actually sent in the Crew Module on an LVM-3 rocket on the Gaganyaan mission.

    Scientists have also lined up a series of tests with the beginning of the TV-D1 flight programme on Saturday.

    ISRO Chairman S Somanath had recently said similar kinds of abort missions would be conducted much before the human space flight programme.

    The prerequisites for the Gaganyaan mission include the development of many critical technologies, including human-rated launch vehicles for carrying the crew safely into space, a life support system to provide an earth-like environment to the crew in space, and crew emergency escape provision.

    The rocket to be launched into space would be a human-rated LVM 3 — a vehicle that would carry the Orbital Module to an intended Low Earth Orbit of 400 km on the Gaganyaan mission.

    However, for the Test Vehicle Abort Mission 1(TV-D1), the Crew Module is an unpressurised version and it has the overall size and weight of the actual Crew Module on the Gaganyaan mission.

    The Crew Module has all the systems for deceleration and recovery, a set of parachutes among many others.

    In the first test flight on Saturday, the Crew Module would capture the flight data for evaluation of the performance of various systems onboard to serve the scientists. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

  • ISRO successfully completes Gaganyaan low altitude escape motor static test

    By PTI

    BENGALURU: An important milestone in the planned human spaceflight project Gaganyaan was completed on Wednesday with the successful test-firing of the Low Altitude Escape Motor (LEM) of crew escape system from Sriharikota spaceport, space agency ISRO said.

    The crew escape system takes away the crew module of the Gaganyaan mission in case of any eventuality and rescues the astronauts, the Bengaluru-headquartered Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement.

    In case of aborting the mission during the initial phase of flight, LEM provides the required thrust to the crew escape system to take away the crew module from the launch vehicle, it said.

    The main objectives of the static tests are to evaluate motor ballistic parameters, validate motor subsystem performance and confirm the design margins and to validate the integrity of all interfaces, among others, the space agency said.

    BENGALURU: An important milestone in the planned human spaceflight project Gaganyaan was completed on Wednesday with the successful test-firing of the Low Altitude Escape Motor (LEM) of crew escape system from Sriharikota spaceport, space agency ISRO said.

    The crew escape system takes away the crew module of the Gaganyaan mission in case of any eventuality and rescues the astronauts, the Bengaluru-headquartered Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement.

    In case of aborting the mission during the initial phase of flight, LEM provides the required thrust to the crew escape system to take away the crew module from the launch vehicle, it said.

    The main objectives of the static tests are to evaluate motor ballistic parameters, validate motor subsystem performance and confirm the design margins and to validate the integrity of all interfaces, among others, the space agency said.

  • Engine for Gaganyaan programme successfully undergoes qualification testing

    By PTI

    BENGALURU: High-thrust Vikas engine for the Gaganyaan programme has successfully undergone qualification test for a duration of 25 seconds at Indian Space Research Organisation Propulsion Complex in Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu.

    With regard to the Vikas engine qualification for the Gaganyaan Programme, two engines have already undergone tests under nominal operating conditions for a total duration of 480 seconds, the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency noted in a statement.

    The test carried out on Thursday is to verify the robustness of the engine by operating beyond its nominal operating conditions (fuel-oxidiser ratio and chamber pressure).

    “The performance of the engine met the test objectives and the engine parameters were closely matching with the predictions during the entire duration of the test”, ISRO said.

    Further, three more tests are planned for a cumulative duration of 75 seconds under varying operating conditions.

    Subsequently, another high-thrust Vikas engine will undergo a long-duration test for 240 seconds to complete the Vikas engine qualification for the Gaganyaan Programme, it was stated.

  • Two unmanned missions to be launched before flying Gaganyaan by end of 2022: Minister

    Singh, the Minister of State in the Department of Space, said space projects have been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Gaganyaan: ISRO’s thrust area for international cooperation

    Express News Service

    BENGALURU: The Gaganyaan programme is a stepping stone for establishing sustained human presence in outer space. The Human Space Flight programme Ganayaan announced in 2018 is a major thrust area of ISRO’s international cooperation, said ISRO Chairman K Sivan, talking about human space flight being a good candidate for international cooperation.

    This comes at a time when several countries are collaborating on the Artemis mission (crewed Moon landing mission) but there is no public announcement by the Indian space agency to team up with USA’s programme. Even as Sivan believed the potential of the moon to serve as an observatory to study the signatures of global warming on earth.

    He was talking at the crossover session of Sydney Dialogues at the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2021, on Friday.

    Sivan meanwhile expressed confidence in strengthening international collaborations with various other countries through Gaganyaan itself.

    He iterated that with the Gaganyaan mission, India is cooperating with CNES, France on space medicine, Canada and Romania on wind tunnel testing, Australia and European Space Agency on ground station support.

    Astronaut candidates have completed the Russian leg of their training at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Russia.

    “I am sure that the present cooperation will continue and will lead to increased engagement with international partners in the times to come,” Sivan said.

    Talking about existing international collaborations by Japan, Hiroshi Yamakawa, President, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), recalled the Hayabusa2, a sample-return mission with Australia where samples were recovered from from asteroid Ryugu back to earth in 2020, “It was a great achievement.”

    With India he iterated the plans for a joint mission to the moon — lunar polar exploration mission — that will provide a rover and India will provide a lander.

    Meanwhile, Japan’s role in the ISS and Artemis programme will be manifold. “We are going to collaborate with the US and many countries in the near future, and will provide habitation function to the gateway which is a new manned space station around the moon.”

    He said JAXA will also provide cargo transportation capability using space cargo ship and will collaborate with the USA in the near future towards sustainable exploration on the surface of the moon.

  • Scientists from ISRO, IISc develop device to carry out biological experiments in space

    By Express News Service

    BENGALURU: Researchers from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have developed a modular, self-contained device to cultivate microorganisms, which can enable scientists to carry out biological experiments during manned space missions like India’s 2022-scheduled first manned space mission Gaganyaan.  

    Understanding how such microbes behave in extreme environments can provide valuable insights for human space missions. In recent years, scientists have been increasingly exploring the use of lab-on-chip platforms – which combine many analyses into a single integrated chip – for such experiments. But there are additional challenges to designing such platforms for outer space.  

    In a study published in Acta Astronautica, the team showed how the device can be used to activate and track the growth of a bacterium, Sporosarcina pasteurii, with minimal human intervention. The device uses an light emitting diode and photodiode sensor combination to track bacterial growth by measuring optical density or scattering of light, similar to spectrophotometers used in the lab, an IISc release said. 

    It also has separate compartments for different experiments. Each ‘cassette’ consists of a chamber where bacteria – suspended as spores in a sucrose solution – and a nutrient medium can be mixed to kickstart growth, by flicking on a switch remotely.

    Using an electron microscope, the researchers confirmed that the spores multiplied into rod-shaped bacteria inside the device, as they would have under lab conditions.  

    Data from each cassette is collected and stored independently. Three cassettes are clubbed into a single cartridge, which consumes just under 1W of power. The researchers envision that a full payload that could go in a spacecraft will contain four such cartridges capable of carrying out 12 independent experiments.  

    Koushik Viswanathan, Assistant Prof in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and senior author of the study, says, “It has to be completely self-contained . Besides, you can’t simply expect the same operating conditions as you would in a normal laboratory setting.”

  • ISRO conducts hot test of Gaganyaan Service Module Propulsion System

    By PTI

    BENGALURU: ISRO said it successfully conducted the first hot test of the System Demonstration Model (SDM) of the Gaganyaan Service Module Propulsion System for a duration of 450 seconds at the test facility of Propulsion Complex (IPRC), Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu, on Saturday.

    The system performance met the test objectives and there was a close match with the pre-test predictions, the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency said in a statement.

    Further, a series of hot tests are planned to simulate various mission conditions as well as off-nominal conditions, it said.

    The Service Module (SM) is part of the Gaganyaan Orbital module and is located below the crew module and remains connected to it until re-entry, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) explained.

    The SM Propulsion System consists of a unified bipropellant system consisting of five numbers of 440 N thrust engines and 16 numbers of 100 N Reaction Control system (RCS) thrusters with MON-3 and MMH as Oxidizer and Fuel respectively.

    “The SDM, consisting of five numbers of 440 N engines and eight numbers of 100 N thrusters, was realised to qualify the propulsion system performance in ground. A new test facility is established at IPRC, Mahendragiri for testing the SDM (sic)”, the statement added.

  • First uncrewed mission of Gaganyaan programme not possible in December: ISRO

    By PTI
    BENGALURU: The launch of the first uncrewed mission planned in December, as part of the human spaceflight programme ‘Gaganyaan’, will be delayed due to the COVID-19-induced disruption in delivery of hardware elements for the ambitious venture, ISRO confirmed on Monday.

    “Definitely it will not be possible in December. It’s delayed”, Chairman of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), K Sivan, told PTI here.

    “It (uncrewed mission) will shift to next year”.

    According to sources in the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency, under the Department of Space, delivery of hardware by the industry was hit due to the lockdown imposed in several States to contain the pandemic in recent months.

    As part of the mandate of Gaganyaan, two uncrewed flights are planned to test the end-to-end capacity for the manned mission.

    “Design, analysis and documentation are done by ISRO while hardware for Gaganyaan is fabricated and supplied by hundreds of industries across the country,” the sources said.

    The objective of Gaganyaan is to carry a crew of three to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), perform a set of predefined activities in space, and return them safely to a predefined destination on earth.

    Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Space, Jitendra Singh said in February this year that the first unmanned mission is planned in December 2021 and the second unmanned one in 2022-23, followed by the human spaceflight demonstration.

    Four Indian astronaut-candidates (Test Pilots of Indian Air Force) have already undergone generic space flight training in Russia as part of the Gaganyaan programme.

    ISRO’s heavy-lift launcher GSLV Mk III has been identified for the mission.

    Formal announcement of the Gaganyaan programme was made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day address on August 15, 2018.

    The initial target was to launch the human spaceflight before the 75th anniversary of India’s independence on August 15, 2022.

    Meanwhile, the four Indian astronaut-candidates are getting ready to kick-start the Indian leg of the mission- specific training that focuses on physical, mental, psychological and technological aspects.

    An expert team has defined the training curriculum.

    “Mostly, it will start next month”, Sivan said.

    “The training will happen at different locations. Academic training, aircraft trials, Navy trials, survival trials, simulation trials the training is repeated, updated till they fly.”

    The crew management activities are being taken care of by Indian Air Force.

    ISRO has signed MoU with seven labs of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for design and development of human centric products.

    It has signed a similar agreement with academic institutes for development of Microgravity payloads.

    The human-centric products include space food and potable water, crew health monitoring system, emergency survival kit, and crew medical kit.

    ISRO is also taking the help of French, Russian and US space agencies in “some of the crucial activities and supply of components”, sources said.

    Sivan said engines are getting tested and being qualified as part of human rating of the launch vehicle.

  • ISRO holds hot test of liquid propellant Vikas engine for ‘Gaganyaan’

    By PTI
    BENGALURU: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday successfully conducted the third long-duration hot test of the liquid propellant Vikas engine for the Gaganyaan programme, the country’s first manned mission to space.

    The test was done for the core L110 liquid stage of the human rated GSLV MkIII vehicle, as part of the engine qualification requirements for the Gaganyaan programme, the space agency said in a statement.

    The engine was fired for 240 seconds at the test facility of ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC), Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu, said the statement.

    The performance of the engine met the test objectives and the engine parameters were closely matching with the predictions during the entire duration of the test, it said.

    The objective of the Gaganyaan programme is to demonstrate the capability to send humans to low earth orbit onboard an Indian launch vehicle and bring them back to earth.

    Union Minister of State (Independent charge) of Space, Jitendra Singh said in February this year that the first unmanned mission is planned in December 2021 and the second unmanned one in 2022-23 followed by the human spaceflight demonstration.

    Four Indian astronaut-candidates have already undergone generic space flight training in Russia as part of the Gaganyaan programme.

    ISRO’s heavy-lift launcher GSLV Mk III has been identified for the mission.

    Formal announcement of the Gaganyaan programme was made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day address on August 15, 2018.

    The initial target was to launch the human spaceflight before the 75th anniversary of India’s independence on August 15, 2022.

    ISRO is also taking the help of French, Russian and US space agencies in some of the crucial activities and supply of components, sources said.