It Crossed Speed Of Sound, Then Initiated Crew Escape System: ISRO Chief On Gaganyaan Test Flight

ISRO Chief S Somnath announced the success of the Gaganyaan test flight launch and said that vehicles went slightly above the speed of sound and initiated the crew escape system.

S Somanth, ISRO Chief (L), Parachutes with crew module landing in Bay of Bengal (R)

Source : PTI, ISRO YouTube

Gagayaan Mission: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully conducted its maiden test launch of an uncrewed flight mission in the Gaganyaan programme on Saturday. Announcing the same, ISRO chief S Somnath said the vehicle with the crew escape system for the Gaganyaan programme went up to a Mach number, which is slightly above the speed of sound and initiated an abort condition for the crew escape system to function. 

"I am very happy to announce the successful accomplishment of Gaganyaan TV-D1 mission" the ISRO chief said.

#WATCH | ISRO chief S Somanath says, "I am very happy to announce the successful accomplishment of Gaganyaan TV-D1 mission" pic.twitter.com/MyeeMmUSlY

— ANI (@ANI) October 21, 2023

ISRO took to X, formerly Twitter, and posted, "Mission Gaganyaan. TV D1 Test Flight is accomplished. Crew Escape System performed as intended. Mission Gaganyaan gets off on a successful note."

Mission Gaganyaan

TV D1 Test Flight is accomplished.

Crew Escape System performed as intended.

Mission Gaganyaan gets off on a successful note. @DRDO_India@indiannavy#Gaganyaan

— ISRO (@isro) October 21, 2023

"I am very happy to announce the successful accomplishment of the TV-D1 mission. The purpose of this mission was to demonstrate the crew escape system for the Gaganyaan program through a test vehicle demonstration in which the vehicle went up to a Mach number, which is slightly above the speed of sound and initiated an abort condition for the crew escape system to function," the ISRO chief said.

#WATCH | Sriharikota: ISRO Chief S Somanath says, "I am very happy to announce the successful accomplishment of the TV-D1 mission. The purpose of this mission was to demonstrate the crew escape system for the Gaganyaan program through a test vehicle demonstration in which the… pic.twitter.com/P34IpyPeVU

— ANI (@ANI) October 21, 2023

He further added, "The crew escape system took the crew module away from the vehicle and subsequent operations including the touch-down at the sea have been very well accomplished. and we have a confirmation of the data for all of this..."

Talking about the reason for putting the launch on hold earlier, S Somnath said, "I will also like to tell the reason for why we had a hold. After going through the nominal lift-off process, there was a hold issued by the ground computer, which is called the automatic launch sequence computer, that detected a non-conformance for allowing the engine to continue the thrusting to go further. This happened due to a monitoring anomaly in the system, which is why we could identify it very fast and correct it."

VIDEO | "I will also like to tell the reason for why we had a hold. After going through the nominal lift-off process, there was a hold issued by the ground computer, which is called the automatic launch sequence computer, that detected a non-conformance for allowing the engine to… pic.twitter.com/yMmbJCTnTn

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 21, 2023

The launch was scheduled for 8:30 am on Saturday which was postponed to 8:45 am due to weather and was later put on hold. ISRO later said that they had identified and corrected the problem and the launch had been rescheduled to 10: 00 am.