'Gaganyaan TV-D1 mission successful': ISRO Chief S Somanath

Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh): Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S Somanath on Saturday announced the success of the 'TV-D1' (Test Vehicle Development Flight 1) in the Gaganyaan Mission.

The test vehicle was launched on the second attempt after it had faced an engine ignition problem at 8:45 am.

Addressing the media, ISRO Chairman S Somanath said," 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 crew escape system took the crew module away from the vehicle, and subsequent operations, including the touch-down at sea, have been very well accomplished. and we have confirmation of the data for all of this," he added.

ISRO chief S Somanath congratulated scientists after the successful touchdown of the crew escape module.

On the occasion, Mission Director S Sivakumar said, " This is like a never before attempt. It is like a bouquet of three experiments put together. We have now seen the characteristics of all three systems with what we wanted to test through this experiment or this mission. The test vehicle, the crew escape system, the crew module everything, we have perfectly demonstrated in the first attempt. All the systems performed well."

"We had been at penance for the last 3 to 4 years and the D-day was today... We are very happy to be able to do it on the very first attempt," he added.

This Flight test vehicle Abort mission was conducted to demonstrate the performance of the Crew escape system as part of the Gaganyaan mission.

(ANI)