The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief S Somanath in a live telecast from the launch centre said, “The liftoff attempt of TV-D1 could not happen today. Initially, the launch was scheduled at 8 am. There was a postponement of liftoff time to 8.45 am due to the weather situation. We had a very smooth automatic launch sequence leading up to the command to lift off. But the engine ignition has not happened in the nominal course. We have to find out what went wrong. The entire vehicle is very safe. We have to reach the vehicle and find out what has happened now.”
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“We will come back soon after analysing what has triggered the automatic launch sequence holding the vehicle. The onboard computer which is doing this function, the ground checkout computer has withheld the launch in view of the anomaly observed. We will come back with an understanding of the anomaly, correct it and schedule the launch very soon. This will be announced a little later, after the analysis is completed,” Somanath said.
Saturday’s test flight was the first unmanned test flight for Gaganyaan, the country’s first manned space mission.
The Gaganyaan project aims to demonstrate human spaceflight capability by launching a three-member crew to a low earth orbit of 400 km for three days, and bringing them back safely, with a planned splashdown in Indian Ocean waters.
The Gaganyaan crew module will house the astronauts in pressurised earth-like atmospheric conditions. TV-D1 will have an unpressurised version that has completed integration and testing.
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This crew module will be recovered by an Indian Navy diving team after it splashes down in the Bay of Bengal. TV-D1 is a single-stage liquid rocket and the payload consists of the crew module, escape systems with their fast-acting solid motors, crew module fairing and interface adapters, according to the space agency.
This flight was supposed to simulate the abort condition during the ascent trajectory corresponding to Mach 1.2 that will be faced in the Gaganyaan mission.
Subsequently, the abort sequence was supposed to be executed autonomously — commencing with the separation of the crew escape systems, to deployment of parachutes and culminating in the safe touchdown of the module about 10 km off the coast of Sriharikota.
The crew module has undergone electrical and acoustic tests at Isro’s facility in Bengaluru. It was dispatched to the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on August 13. It was tested further and pre-integrated with the crew escape system, before final integration with the test vehicle happened at the launchpad.
This was a major milestone for the Gaganyaan programme as a near-complete system was integrated for a flight test. Its success would have set the stage for the remaining qualification tests and unmanned missions, leading to the first manned mission.
