Tiny step for India: ISRO released video of flight test regarding crew escape system for space missions

CHENNAI: On Friday the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released a recorded video of a flight test regarding the crew escape system for manned space missions. Isro flight tested the crew escape system on Thursday morning. The edited video of 1:39 minutes recorded every stage of the test from take off to splashdown.

Flight test of crew escape system the ‘pad abort’ experiment which involved firing the 12.6-tonne crew capsule which was made by using seven solid propellant motors -- from Sriharikota at 7am after a five-hour countdown. Cameras installed around the launchpad captured the take off. On reaching an altitude of 2.7km (one-third the altitude of a commercial aircraft), the capsule arced towards the Bay of Bengal, deployed two parachutes and landed on the sea, 2.9km from the launchpad.

Onboard cameras recorded the deployment of the parachute while cameras along the coast captured the module soft landing on the Bay of Bengal. The test was a tiny step for India, 56 years after the USSR and the US sent men to space. China sent men to space in 2013.