Gaganyaan mission: All you need to know about TV-D1 test flight’s successful launch | India News

Test Vehicle: It is a single-stage liquid rocket. It will carry the crew module and crew escape systems with their fast-acting solid motors, along with crew module fairing (CMF) and interface adapters as payloads.
Crew Module: Isro will use an unpressurised crew module. It will have an overall size and mass of the actual Gaganyaan crew module. It houses all the systems for the deceleration and recovery, including parachutes, recovery aids, actuation systems and pyros.

The avionics systems are in a dual redundant mode configuration for navigation, sequencing, telemetry, instrumentation and power,” Isro said. It has been designed to capture the flight data for evaluation of the performance of various systems.
Crew Escape System: It consists of 5 types of quick acting solid motors, that is, Crew Escape System Jettisoning Motor (CJM), High-altitude Escape Motor (HEM), Low-altitude Escape Motor (LEM), Low-altitude Pitch Motor (LPM) and High-altitude Pitch Motor (HPM), which generate required acceleration for varying mission requirements.
The Mission: “In-flight Abort Demonstration of Crew Escape System (CES)” at Mach number 1.2 (1,482 kmph) with the newly developed TV followed by CM separation & safe recovery.

The mission simulated the abort condition during the ascent trajectory corresponding to a Mach number of 1.2 (1,482 kmph) expected to be encountered in the Gaganyaan mission.
The crew escape system with the crew module separated from the Test Vehicle at an altitude of 11.7km.Subsequently, the abort sequence got executed autonomously commencing with the separation of crew escape system and crew module at an altitude of 16.6km.
Following this a series of parachutes got deployed, finally culminating in the safe touchdown of CM in the sea, about 10km from the coast of Sriharikota.

Recovery: Recovery team recovered CM after touchdown, approximately 10km from Sriharikota coast.
What it means: The mission is expected to give Isro multiple invaluable lessons to plan the eventual human spaceflight mission, the Gaganyaan, which in itself will be the first step towards more ambitious goals of setting up a space station and sending astronauts to Moon.
Isro’s target Saturday will be demonstrating an abort condition, wherein, it will intentionally cause an anomaly and allow the crew module (CM) to come out of it, do tumbling manoeuvres, deploy parachutes, and land in a designated spot on the sea before being recovered.

According to multiple Isro scientists TOI spoke with, the “in-flight abort demonstration” will not only provide critical data on systems designed for crew safety, but will also give insights into the last leg of the re-entry of the CM.
A senior scientist said: “The test will see the CES autonomously react to a simulated anomaly and ensure the CM gets to a safe distance from the launch vehicle and CES and splashdown for the recovery teams to rescue. While the test itself will give a lot of data on design and configuration, it will also demonstrate conditions of the last leg of the re-entry.”
He added that in the actual Gaganyaan mission, the final leg of the CM’s return to Earth will need multiple parachutes to deploy flawlessly to manage the velocity of the module and ensure it lands safely in the high seas. “This mission will also show us how well the parachutes work.”

Saturday’s mission is only the first of several abort tests that Isro has planned before it attempts the first uncrewed mission, multiple of which will serve as the precursor to the crewed mission planned in 2025.
Isro chairman S Somanath had told TOI earlier: “Aside from this — which is only one type of abort test — there are different events such as maximum dynamic pressure condition, maximum acceleration condition, some transient condition etc, in which abort will become critical in flight. In all, Isro has produced four such special test vehicles.”
The test will also help Isro firm up the standard operating procedures (SOPs) that it needs to send to personnel from various countries as part of its larger recovery plans in case the crew module is forced to land in sea beyond India’s control.
Given the uncertainties and the fact that personnel from multiple countries cannot be trained, Isro will send SOPs — preventing propellant contamination, explosion prevention, to access crew if doors can’t be opened and so on— to global partners.
“Both the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal are preferred sites but we’ll need to have recovery teams in other parts of the world as the situation need not always be nominal. In nominal condition, we can land where we plan. But a little bit of off-nominal condition, CM may go to the Indian ocean, and a little more, it may go to the Pacific Ocean and another off-nominal condition may see it off the Australian coast,” Somanath had told TOI.
Pointing out that there may be situations where landing cannot happen at designated sites, he said, there may not always be time given that the crew module will be in a drifting orbit. That is, once it crosses over Arabian Sea, for instance, it will take 13-16 orbits to return to a place where landing can happen on Arabian Sea, and each orbit takes more than an hour.

Watch First Gaganyaan inflight Abort And Crew Module retrieval test: Everything you need to know