First Pics Of India's Gaganyaan Craft Which Will Take Humans To Space In 2024

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today released pictures of the Gaganyaan spacecraft which is set to take humans to space in December 2024. The space agency also said that they will soon start unmanned flight tests for the mission.

"ISRO to commence unmanned flight tests for the Gaganyaan mission. Preparations for the Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1), which demonstrates the performance of the Crew Escape System, are underway," the agency said in a tweet.

The Gaganyaan project would demonstrate India's capability of taking a crew of two to three members to a circular orbit of about 400 km around the earth for a one-to-three days mission and bring them back safely to earth, by landing in a designated location in Indian sea waters.

"The success of this test flight will set the stage for the remaining qualification tests and unmanned missions, leading to the first Gaganyaan mission with Indian astronauts," ISRO said.

The agency in a release regarding the First Crew Module for Gaganyaan test flight said that the first development flight Test Vehicle (TV-D1) is in the final stages of preparation.

"The Test Vehicle is a single-stage liquid rocket developed for this abort mission. The payloads consist of the Crew Module (CM) and Crew Escape Systems (CES) with their fast-acting solid motors, along with CM fairing (CMF) and Interface Adapters. This flight will simulate the abort condition during the ascent trajectory corresponding to a Mach number of 1.2 encountered in the Gaganyaan mission," the release said.

The Crew Module after integration underwent various electrical testing, at ISRO's facility in Bengaluru, including an acoustic test and was dispatched to SDSC-SHAR on August 13, the release added.