Key test today for India's human spaceflight mission

The stage is set for a crucial step in India’s human space flight mission as a rocket carrying a replica of the Gaganyaan crew module was scheduled to take flight at 8am on Saturday from the first launchpad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said on Friday.

- Soumya Pillai

Last-minute checks were on for a test flight that will enable the agency to carry out a series of safety tests for the Gaganyaan mission, one of the officials aware of the matter said.

“On Saturday, Isro will conduct in-flight abort demonstration of Crew Escape System (CES) at Mach 1.2 with the newly developed test vehicle followed by crew module separation and safe recovery,” Isro’s test flight brochure read.

Isro aims to evaluate the subsystems of the test vehicle, crew escape systems, and various separation systems. It will also check the characteristics of the crew module to determine its deceleration characteristics at a higher altitude, and its recovery plan.

The liquid propelled single stage test vehicle, or TV-D1, uses a modified VIKAS engine with crew module and crew escape system mounted at its fore end.