ISRO will conduct two simulate failures with ‘abort mission’ for the safety of the Gaganyaan crew

In order to ensure crew safety as part of the roadmap for Gaganyaan, ISRO will be conducting two unmanned ‘abort missions’, which will include one in September and the other in December. Gaganyaan will be the first manned flight of India to space in 2024, ISRO chairman S Somanath told IE. Somanath, who is also Secretary, of the Department of Space, said that the first priority would be human safety because of which there is more focus on aborting missions that would simulate failures and bring the crew back safely in such circumstances.

The first Test Vehicle is ready and will launch in September this year, while the second test vehicle will launch in December this year.

Somnath added that they deliberately delayed the manned mission as it is extremely dangerous and if not successful then the entire project will have to be closed, as an unsuccessful mission will have a very bad impact on ISRO as well as the system.

The main idea behind the Gaganyaan mission is to demonstrate India’s capacity and would be the first step toward the Indian Space Station in the future.

ISRO had carried out the launch of the HS 200 rocket booster last week in Sriharikota, as part of the first stage of Gaganyan, which was 20 m long with a 3.2 m diameter and was loaded with 203 tonnes of solid propellent that was tested for 135 seconds.

The mission that would carry three Indians to the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) took a back seat due to the pandemic that initially was to be launched this year, which also coincided with 75 years of Independent India.