Gaganyaan’s first test flight on Oct 21: ISRO

New Delhi: In a crucial step in India’s ambitious programme to lift its astronauts into space, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will test its crew escape system (CES) on October 21, 2023.

The flight, which is set to commence at Sriharikota at 8 am, will test if the CES can protect the astronauts should the launch vehicle malfunction. ISRO has designated this unmanned crew module of the Gaganyaan as TV-D1.

The Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1), to be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, will demonstrate the performance of the crew escape system, the space agency said.

The test involves launching a crew module to outer space and bringing it back to earth and recovering it after touchdown in the Bay of Bengal, Union minister Jitendra Singh had said earlier. It will be a crucial part of Gaganyaan mission, resulting in unmanned and manned missions to outer space by 2024, he said. “Indian Navy personnel have already started mock operations to recover the module,” Singh said at an event organised by a private news channel. “The success of this test will set the stage for the first unmanned Gaganyaan mission and ultimately manned mission to outer space in low earth orbit.”

There will be multiple test flights before a manned mission. These demonstrator missions include an integrated air drop test, a pad abort test and test vehicle flights.