Lift-off of India’s human space mission’s test flight to test crew escape system delayed (Ld)

Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh), Oct 21 (IANS) The Indian space agency has rescheduled the first test flight to check the crucial crew escape system of its rocket that would carry the country’s astronauts into space sometime in 2025.

The Indian human space mission is called Gaganyaan.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had originally scheduled the lift off of the Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1) at 8 a.m. on Saturday from the rocket port here.

However, the space agency has now announced the rescheduling of the lift off at 8.30 a.m.

An ISRO official told IANS the cause of the delay was poor visibility and unsuitable weather conditions.

The Saturday morning mission called Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1) will demonstrate the crew escape system and it is the first of the four such test flights planned by the ISRO, according to the space agency’s Chairman S.Somanath.

In other words, if something goes wrong with the rocket carrying the astronauts in the crew module, then they have to be saved as their lives are at risk.

The crew escape system is designed to protect the astronauts lives by bringing them safely down to splash on the sea.

Like a fighter pilot ejecting from a fighter plane, the crew module with the astronauts will get separated and splash down on the sea with the help of parachutes.

As per plans, India’s first human space mission or Gaganyaan is expected to happen in 2025 and testing the crew escape system is part of that.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at v.jagannathan@ians.in)