Gaganyaan test successful

Sriharikota: Overcoming initial hiccups, including a monitoring anomaly, ISRO on Saturday successfully launched a test vehicle with payloads related to the country's ambitious human space flight programme, Gaganyaan. Scientists simulated an abort situation for the Crew Escape System (CES) to carry the Crew Module out of the test vehicle, TV-D1, as they made a splash into the Bay of Bengal with planned precision, setting off jubilation among ISRO scientists at the Mission Control Center.

Crew Module (CM) is where the astronauts are contained in a pressurised earth-like atmospheric condition during the Gaganyaan mission. For TV-D1, the module was an unpressurised version, ISRO said.

The crew module has been fully recovered from the sea and it has been brought to Chennai port.

"Eastern Naval Command units recovered the Crew Module — a path paved by extensive planning, training of Naval divers, formulation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and joint communication by combined teams of Navy and ISRO," the Indian Navy said. Gaganyaan programme aims to send humans into space on a Low Earth Orbit of 400 km for three days and bring them safely back to the Earth. Smiles came back on the faces of ISRO scientists much late on Saturday as weather-related issues first forced a rescheduling of the launch, from the original 8 am to 8.30 am and again 15 minutes later.

1. ISRO's TV-D1 test flight of Mission Gaganyaan lifts off from Satish Dhawan Space Station, in Sriharikota on Saturday

2. The test flight leaves a trail of smoke after its lift off from Satish Dhawan Space Station

3. Crew module descends

using parachutes after

successfully separating from the launch vehicle

4. Crew module of

Gaganyaan is in safe

hands of Indian Navy

5. Students gather for the launch of the test flight of Mission Gaganyaan, at Satish Dhawan Space Station