India’s Gaganyaan Test Flight Successful

Xinhua/APP

New Delhi: “Mission Gaganyaan TV D1 Test Flight is accomplished. Crew Escape System performed as intended,” stated an Indian space agency.

The Indian Space Research Organization launched the first test flight for its Gaganyaan (skycraft) mission on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. (local time) after putting it on hold due to an anomaly.

The launch was carried out at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

The test vehicle mission is the predecessor to the Gaganyaan project which envisages a demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of three members to an orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission and bringing them back safely to the earth.

The uncrewed flight test with a single-stage liquid propulsion rocket, equipped with a crew module and crew escape system, was earlier scheduled to lift off at 8:00 a.m. (local time) on Saturday.Then it was rescheduled twice so that the reason for the launch hold could be identified and corrected.