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ISRO’s Gaganyaan Safety Milestone
Context:
ISRO successfully conducted its first Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-1) to validate the parachute-based deceleration system of the Gaganyaan crew module.
About Gaganyaan Mission
-
- India’s maiden human spaceflight programme, implemented by ISRO.
- Objective: Send astronauts to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) (~400 km).
- Launch Vehicle: Human-rated LVM3 (HLVM3).
- Agencies Involved: ISRO (lead), DRDO (safety systems), Indian Air Force (lift and release), Indian Navy and Coast Guard (recovery operations).
Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-1)
-
- Purpose: To test parachute-based deceleration and splashdown safety of crew module.
- Method: A 8-tonne dummy crew capsule was dropped from a Chinook helicopter at ~3 km altitude.
- Result: Sequential parachute deployment successful; touchdown velocity ~8 m/s, matching design expectations.
- Importance: Simulates the final stages of astronaut return to Earth.
Other Safety Validation Tests
- Crew Escape System (CES): Demonstrates crew ejection in case of launch failure.
- TV-D1 (October 2023): First successful abort test.
- TV-D2 (upcoming): Complex abort scenario with thrusters + parachutes.
- Uncrewed Gaganyaan-1 (G1): Will carry humanoid robot Vyommitra to test life support and operations.
Critical Subsystems Under Development
- Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS): Oxygen, waste, fire safety, temperature regulation.
- Integrated Vehicle Health Management System (IVHMS): Autonomous fault detection and abort actions.
- Human-rating of LVM3: Strengthened design, redundancies, reliability upgrades.
- Indigenisation: Escape motors, composites, specialised materials (as imports restricted).
Long-term Goals of India’s Human Spaceflight Programme
- Establishment of BharatiyaAntariksh Station (BAS) by 2035.
- Indian crewed lunar landing by 2040.
- Development of in-orbit docking technology (SpaDeX mission 2025 success).
- H1 (first human flight) scheduled for 2027
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