ISRO conducts test of Crew Escape System for proposed Human Spaceflight programme

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) conducted another test of its crew escape system (part of the proposed human spaceflight programme) on Thursday. Stating that the crew escape system is a critical technology for human spaceflight, the ISRO said that it is an emergency escape measure designed to pull the crew module along with the astronauts quickly to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the case of a launch abort.

ISRO in a statement said that the first test (Pad Abort Test) demonstrated the safe recovery of the crew module in case of any event involving aborting the space capsule at launch to save astronauts.

According to the Indian space agency, the five-hour countdown was smooth and the crew escape system along with the simulated crew module lifted off at 7 am at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota of Andhra Pradesh.

Finished in 259 seconds, the test went successfully and the crew escape system along with crew module soared skyward, later floated back to Earth under its parachutes about 2.9 km from Sriharikota. Three recovery boats are being utilised to retrieve the module as part of the recovery protocol.