ISRO planning 2nd test flight of uncrewed Gaganyaan mission on THIS date

Chennai: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be embarking on achieving yet another significant milestone as part of its Gaganyaan mission next week.

Having declared that 2024 will be the year of India's prestigious first-ever human space flight mission Gaganyaan, the Space Agency has announced that it will carry out the second uncrewed mission, a test vehicle flight mission and an airdrop test next week.

“The airdrop test will happen on April 24", ISRO Chairman said on the sidelines of an event organised by the Astronautical Society of India (ASI) at Ahmedabad on Wednesday, according to media reports.

This test flight mission will be followed by two more uncrewed missions that will take place next year.

"If everything goes well, then the manned mission will be held by the end of next year,” he said.

Buoyed by the success of the third Lunar mission Chandrayaan-3, when India became the first country to land on the hitherto unexplored South polar region of the Moon and the first Sun Mission Aditya-L1 that reached the Halo orbit of Lagrange Point (L1) to comprehensively study the outer atmosphere of the most hottest planet, ISRO is all set for the second test flight of Gaganyaan uncrewed mission.

ISRO said that the Halo-Orbit Insertion (HOI) of its solar observatory spacecraft, Aditya-L1 was accomplished on January 6, 2024.

The orbit of Aditya-L1 spacecraft is a periodic Halo orbit which is located roughly 1.5 million km rom earth on the continuously moving Sun-Earth line with an orbital period of about 177.86 earth days. This Halo orbit is a periodic, three-dimensional orbit at L1 involving Sun, Earth and a spacecraft. This specific halo orbit is selected to ensure a mission lifetime of 5 years, minimising station-keeping manoeuvres and thus fuel consumption and ensuring a continuous, unobstructed view of sun.

It may be noted that in October, 2023, ISRO successfully conducted In-flight Abort Demonstration of Crew Escape System (CES) at Mach number 1.2 with the newly developed Test Vehicle followed by Crew Module separation and safe recovery.

The objectives included Flight demonstration and evaluation of Test Vehicle sub systems, evaluation of Crew Escape System including various separation systems, Crew Module characteristics and deceleration systems demonstration at higher altitude and its recovery.

Following this success, ISRO said "TV D1 Test Flight is accomplished. Crew Escape System performed as intended. Mission Gaganyaan gets off on a successful note".

ISRO's Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) will spearhead the Gaganyaan programme through co-ordinated efforts and focus all the activities that are carried out in other ISRO centres, research labs in India, Indian academia and Industries towards accomplishing the mission.

HSFC, as the lead Centre for Human space flight activities conforms to high standards of reliability and human safety in undertaking R and D activities in new technology areas, such as life support systems, Human Factors Engineering, Bioastronautics, Crew training and Human rating and certification. These areas would constitute important components for future sustained human space flight activities like rendezvous and docking, space station building and interplanetary collaborative manned missions to Moon/Mars and near-earth asteroids.

The Gaganyaan project envisages demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching crew of three members, whose names were unveiled and introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently, to an orbit of 400 km for a 3 days mission and bring them back safely to earth, by landing in Indian sea waters.

The project will be accomplished through an optimal strategy by considering inhouse expertise, experience of Indian industry, intellectual capabilities of Indian academia and research institutions along with cutting edge technologies available with international agencies.

The pre-requisites for Gaganyaan mission include development of many critical technologies including human rated launch vehicle for carrying crew safely to space, Life Support System to provide an earth like environment to crew in space, crew emergency escape provision and evolving crew management aspects for training, recovery and rehabilitation of crew.

Various precursor missions are planned for demonstrating the Technology Preparedness Levels before carrying out the actual Human Space Flight mission. These demonstrator missions include Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT), Pad Abort Test (PAT) and Test Vehicle (TV) flights. Safety and reliability of all systems will be proven in unmanned missions preceding manned mission.

ISRO said it will be using its the latest LVM3 rocket--the well proven and reliable heavy lift launcher as the launch vehicle for Gaganyaan mission.

It consists of solid stage, liquid stage and cryogenic stage. All systems in LVM3 launch vehicle are re-configured to meet human rating requirements and christened Human Rated LVM3. HLVM3 will be capable of launching the Orbital Module to an intended Low Earth Orbit of 400 km.

HLVM3 consists of Crew Escape System (CES) powered by a set of quick acting, high burn rate solid motors which ensures that Crew Module along with crew is taken to a safe distance in case of any emergency either at launch pad or during the ascent phase.

It said the Orbital Module (OM) that will be Orbiting Earth comprises of Crew Module (CM) and Service Module (SM).

OM is equipped with state-of-the-art avionics systems with adequate redundancy considering human safety.

CM is the habitable space with Earth like environment in space for the crew. It is of double walled construction consisting of pressurized metallic Inner Structure and unpressurised External Structure with Thermal Protection System (TPS). It houses the crew interfaces, human centric products, life support system, avionics and deceleration systems.

It is also designed for re-entry to ensure safety of the crew during descent till touchdown.

SM will be used for providing necessary support to CM while in orbit. It is an unpressurized structure containing thermal system, propulsion system, power systems, avionics systems and deployment mechanisms.

On the new technologies being developed for Gaganyaan, ISRO said Human safety is of paramount importance in this mission.

In order to ensure the same, various new technologies comprising of Engineering systems and

Human centric systems are being developed and realised.

On the crew training for Gaganyaan, it siad the Astronaut Training Facility established in Bengaluru caters to Classroom training, Physical Fitness training, Simulator training and Flight suit training.

The Training modules cover academic courses, Gaganyaan Flight Systems, Micro-gravity familiarization through Parabolic Flights, Aero-medical training, Recovery and Survival training, mastering of Flight Procedures and training on Crew Training Simulators. Aero medical training, Periodical flying practice and Yoga are also included as part of the training.