ISRO Chief S Somnath made a statement immediately after the Gaganyaan test flight was put “on hold”
New Delhi:
India’s space agency ISRO today “put on hold” the first test flight for its manned spaceflight mission ‘Gaganyaan’, five seconds after the scheduled launch time at 8.45 am IST.
“The launch of the test vehicle for the Gaganyaan mission could not take place,” ISRO chief S. Somanath said minutes after the onboard computer aborted the launch of the rocket.
Today’s test flight was aimed at carrying various crew safety-related payloads and carrying out necessary mission objectives as part of the first in a series of tests planned by ISRO before the main mission that takes Indian astronauts to space, likely in late 2024.
The countdown began as intended and everything proceeded as expected until T-6 seconds, when the rocket ignited six seconds ahead of the intended launch schedule. Looking at this anomaly, the onboard computer immediately ignored the launch at T-5 seconds and put the mission “on hold”.
“The engine ignition did not take place in the nominal manner,” ISRO chief S. Somnath said in his statement after the incident, adding, “We have to find out what went wrong, we will get back to it soon.”
“There was a very smooth air lift and automatic launch prior to the command to take off, but the engine ignition did not happen in the nominal sequence due to an anomaly,” Mr Somanath said.
Mr Somnath said the “vehicle is completely safe”. He also said that ISRO will “return soon after analyzing what caused the Automatic Launch Sequence (ALS) that stuck the vehicle.”
“We will have to reach the vehicle and then see what happened now,” Mr Somnath explained, adding that this process “takes some time” but he did not specify exactly how long. This means that the first Gaganyaan test flight ‘TV-D1 launch’ will be postponed for at least a few hours, if not more.
Earlier today, the test flight, which was originally scheduled for 8 a.m. (8 a.m. IST), was moved to 8:30 a.m. and then again to 8:45 a.m. IST “due to local weather conditions.”
