{"id":45805,"date":"2023-10-24T18:08:36","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T10:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/india-celebrates-first-major-milestone-on-path-to-launching-astronauts\/"},"modified":"2023-10-24T18:08:36","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T10:08:36","slug":"india-celebrates-first-major-milestone-on-path-to-launching-astronauts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/india-celebrates-first-major-milestone-on-path-to-launching-astronauts\/","title":{"rendered":"India celebrates \u201cfirst major milestone\u201d on path to launching astronauts"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2018, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed his nation to develop its own capability to send astronauts into orbit, an achievement that would make India the fourth country with an independent human spaceflight program. On Saturday, that ambition moved a step closer to reality with a successful test of the human-rated spacecraft\u2019s launch-abort system.<\/p>\n

This is the set of rocket motors and parachutes that would be used to propel the spacecraft away from a failing launch vehicle, a dramatic maneuver that would save the lives of everyone on board. By all accounts, Indian officials were thrilled with the outcome of the test flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have started the journey of Gaganyaan with this maiden launch of the test vehicle abort sequence, and this will be repeated multiple times under different conditions,\u201d said Sreedhara Somanath, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization. \u201cAlso, we\u2019ll have an unmanned Gaganyaan vehicle (orbital) mission soon, at the beginning of the next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

An unpressurized model of the Gaganyaan spacecraft, mimicking the shape and mass of the real capsule, took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India\u2019s east coast at 12:30 am EDT (04:30 UTC) Saturday on top of a single-stage, liquid-fueled rocket. The booster accelerated the capsule to a speed of Mach 1.2, a little more than the speed of sound, and then an automated command triggered a simulated launch abort.<\/p>\n

The escape maneuver was timed for roughly the moment the rocket passed through the most extreme aerodynamic forces of the flight. This is the most demanding time for a launch abort. Burning solid propellant, a high-altitude escape motor ignited for a few seconds to push the 10,000-pound (4.5-metric ton) capsule away from the top of its booster. The capsule and its launch abort system coasted up to about 55,000 feet (16.9 kilometers), then the capsule separated and released a series of parachutes, finally deploying three large main chutes to slow for splashdown around six miles (10 kilometers) off the coast.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

An Indian Navy vessel in the Bay of Bengal retrieved the capsule to return it to ISRO engineers for inspections. No one was aboard the Gaganyaan capsule for Saturday\u2019s test flight, which was similar in purpose to abort tests of SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon spacecraft and NASA\u2019s Orion capsule.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Indian Navy recovered the Gaganyaan capsule from the Bay of Bengal. <\/p>\n

Credit:
\n ISRO<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Modi, in a post on the social media platform X, wrote that \u201cthis launch takes us one step closer to realizing India\u2019s first human spaceflight program, Gaganyaan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under Modi\u2019s nationalist premiership, Indian space exploration has made strides forward, including a string of successful launches, missions to the Moon and Mars, and the full deployment of its own regional satellite navigation system begun under a prior administration. An independent Indian human spaceflight program would vault India into an exclusive club alongside the United States, China, and Russia, and there\u2019s room for debate over whether India might soon catapult ahead of Russia in spaceflight.<\/p>\n

Safety first<\/h2>\n

\u201cAs far as the Gaganyaan program is concerned, this is the first major milestone,\u201d said R. Hutton, mission director for the Gaganyaan program, in remarks after Saturday\u2019s test flight. \u201cIn Gaganyaan, the most important (factor) is the safety of the crew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s mission\u2014designated TV-D1 as the first demonstration flight of India\u2019s new \u201ctest vehicle\u201d\u2014is the first of four atmospheric launch-abort tests Indian officials say will fully exercise the capability of the crew escape system at different phases of the launch. The new \u201ctest vehicle\u201d that launched the abort test Saturday is derived from a hydrazine-fueled booster used on another Indian rocket.<\/p>\n

Indian engineers did not attempt to recover the booster Saturday, but officials said the single-stage rocket could become a technological testbed for other programs, including vertical takeoff and vertical landing, a precursor for future reusable launch vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gaganyaan vehicle, although it is fully robust and reliable, we can\u2019t take anything to chance, and therefore if any malfunction happens, there has to be a system in the launch vehicle which is called the crew escape, which will take the crew module away safely and land,\u201d Hutton said Saturday. \u201cThis is exactly what has been demonstrated today in this first mission of the test vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

ISRO completed a successful pad abort test in 2018, where the escape system boosted a capsule into the sky from a fixed start on the ground, simulating an abort on the launch pad.<\/p>\n

The Indian government has allocated about $1.1 billion for Gaganyaan, which means \u201ccelestial vehicle\u201d in Sanskrit. Indian engineers worked on the preliminary design of a human-rated spacecraft for several years before Modi\u2019s announcement in 2018 that a new Indian-made space capsule would carry an Indian astronaut into orbit by 2022.<\/p>\n

India did not make that schedule. Officials have blamed the delays on the COVID pandemic and the technical complexities involved in developing a crew spacecraft. Somanath, who leads India\u2019s space agency, said ISRO is on track to launch an unpiloted Gaganyaan mission into low-Earth orbit early next year for an end-to-end test, from launch through re-entry and splashdown.<\/p>\n

The unpiloted orbital mission will have to be \u201crepeated at least two times, maybe more,\u201d Somanath said at an Indian conference in June. \u201cAll of this is success-based. If anything goes wrong here, it requires correction and further launches. So I\u2019m not putting a date for the launch of the (first) human mission. It\u2019s not important at this moment. Our focus is to do what is needed to reach this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

S. Unnikrishnan Nair, head of India\u2019s Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, poses with a scale model of the LVM3 rocket with the Gaganyaan spacecraft in launch configuration.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n Pallava Bagla\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Nevertheless, in a briefing with Modi last week, Somanath suggested the first Gaganyaan crew mission is now scheduled for launch in 2025. In a statement, Modi\u2019s office said ISRO plans around 20 major tests, including three unpiloted missions on India\u2019s LVM3 rocket, the country\u2019s most powerful launch vehicle. On the most recent LVM3 launch in July, the rocket flew with modified human-rated boosters and engines designed to operate with higher performance margins.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

The ultimate objective of the Gaganyaan program is to field a spacecraft capable of flying a crew of three for up to a week at an altitude of 250 miles (400 kilometers).<\/p>\n

Doing it (mostly) alone<\/h2>\n

Somanath said in June that India is pursuing the Gaganyaan program \u201cusing our own knowledge, our own skills, our own industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

India has amassed significant experience with launching rockets and flying satellites. In August, India became the fourth country to accomplish a soft landing on the Moon with the Chandrayaan 3 mission. ISRO has also sent a spacecraft to Mars.<\/p>\n

But one area of human spaceflight where India has little experience is life support, the intricate array of parts to generate oxygen and eliminate carbon dioxide and moisture in the cabin\u2019s breathing air, supply drinking water, protect against fire, and provide an onboard toilet for the astronauts. Before going ahead with a crew mission, Indian engineers want to ensure all of these systems work in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a difficult technology that only a very few nations have,\u201d Somanath said. \u201cIt\u2019s available only in three nations today, and we approached them for help in developing it, but the help is not forthcoming. You must understand it is not easy to build yourselves. Some of them offered it, but they were telling (us) it would take a few years to develop it, and at exorbitant cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter analyzing the merit of these offers, we decided that we are not going to depend on them,\u201d Somanath said in June. \u201cWe are going to develop it on our own. Work has started, and we have reached a certain condition where we have now integrated and started testing it. It\u2019s great news. But again, it\u2019s the first prototype which we have just made.\u201d<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

India\u2019s space agency is also developing pressure suits the astronauts will wear on their mission. But India has also purchased Russian spacesuits if the Indian-made suits aren\u2019t ready for the first Gaganyaan crew flight.<\/p>\n

Four Indian Air Force test pilots are training for flights into space, although India\u2019s space agency hasn\u2019t revealed their identities.<\/p>\n

As a prelude to the Gaganyaan program, NASA and ISRO have agreed to train Indian astronauts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and an Indian crew member will fly to the International Space Station next year on a short-duration mission. The four Indian astronauts slated for the Gaganyaan program completed more than a year of training at Russia\u2019s Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow in 2021, according to Indian media.<\/p>\n

Somanath said Indian officials will build their own astronaut training program based on lessons learned from the United States and Russia.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A single-stage booster launched the model of the Gaganyaan spacecraft used on Saturday\u2019s in-flight abort test.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n ISRO<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

In his public statements, Modi says the Gaganyaan program is not an end but a means toward even more ambitious goals in space. Last week, Modi announced India should start building its own space station in low-Earth orbit by 2035 and send the first Indian to the Moon by 2040. This road map is similar to the one followed by China, India\u2019s Asian rival, Ars reported last week.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s government has also signaled interest in closer ties with NASA. In June, India signed on to the US-led Artemis Accords, a non-binding set of principles among like-minded nations to promote peaceful exploration in space. Beyond the flight of an Indian to the International Space Station next year, NASA and ISRO have not hashed out the details of any future cooperation in human spaceflight.<\/p>\n

A large rocket called the Next Generation Launch Vehicle, a new launch pad, and additional robotic Chandrayaan missions to the Moon are also in India\u2019s plans, according to Modi, although there are scarce details about the new rocket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2018, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed his nation to develop its own capability to send astronauts into orbit, an achievement that would make India the fourth country with an independent human spaceflight program. On Saturday, that ambition moved a step closer to reality with a successful test of the human-rated spacecraft\u2019s launch-abort system. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8197,1545,301,525,25],"class_list":["post-45805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-gaganyaan","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-india","tag-isro","tag-launch"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45805"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}