Gaganyaan mission: Why couldn’t the TV-D1 rocket take off? ISRO’s Somanath narrates

The unmanned test vehicle entered ‘hold’ mode just five seconds before launch from Sriharikota.

According to ISRO chief Somanath, the engine ignition did not occur during the nominal run of the Gaganyaan mission test vehicle.

“I will come back soon after analyzing what caused the automatic launch sequence that stuck the vehicle,” the ISRO chief said.

The first unmanned flight test, referred to as the Test Vehicle Development Flight Mission-1 (TV-D1 Flight Test), was scheduled to take off at 8:30 am today.

The test vehicle was intended to study the safety of the crew module and crew escape system while returning Indian astronauts to Earth during the ambitious Gaganyaan mission.

The success of the test flight would have paved the way for the remaining qualification tests and unmanned missions, leading to the first Gaganyaan programme.

TV-D1 vehicle, a liquid-powered single-stage test vehicle uses a modified VIKAS engine with Crew Module (CM) and Crew Escape System (CES) mounted at the front.

The ISRO chairman has said that they will analyze today’s outage and announce a new launch date soon.

The planned missile launch had generated a lot of interest in India. Building on the success of India’s space initiatives, including the recent Chandrayan-3 and Aditya L1 missions, the Prime Minister recently directed that India must now strive for new and ambitious goals, including setting up ‘Bharatiya Antariksha Station’ (Indian space station) by 2035 and send the first Indian to the moon by 2040.

Prime Minister Modi even called on Indian scientists to work on interplanetary missions, including a Venus Orbiter mission and a Mars Lander.

So far, the Soviet Union, the US and China have sent people into space.

China reached space in October 2003 when a Chinese mission spent 21 hours circling the Earth 14 times.

The US and China have fully operational space stations in low Earth orbit.

In 1984, Indian Rakesh Sharma spent 21 days and 40 minutes in space with a Russian spacecraft.

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Updated: Oct 21, 2023 09:15 IST