Pad abort test conducted at SHAR

Nellore: ISRO conducted first of its kind ‘Pad Abort Test’ at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, Sriharikota, on Thursday to qualify a Crew Escape System (CES), the critical technology relevant for human spaceflight.

The CES is an emergency escape measure designed to quickly pull the crew module along with the astronauts to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of a launch abort. The first test demonstrated on Thursday for the safe recovery of the crew module in case of any exigency at the launch pad.

After a smooth countdown of five hours, the system along with the simulated crew module with a mass of 12.6 tonnes, lifted off at 7 am at the opening of the launch window from its pad. The test was completed in 259 seconds, during which the CES along with crew module flown skyward, then arced out over the Bay of Bengal and floated back to earth under its parachutes about 2.9 km from Sriharikota.

The crew module reached an altitude of nearly 2.7 km under the power of its seven specifically designed quick acting solid motors to take away the module to a safe distance without exceeding the safe gravitational levels. Nearly 300 sensors recorded various mission performance parameters during the test flight. Three recovery boats have been engaged to retrieve the module as part of the recovery protocol. ISRO Chairman Dr K Sivan and others were present in the exercise.