India is making strides toward independently launching astronauts to space.
While the eye is currently on India’s Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander and Pragyan rover on the moon, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) can be making progress toward other lofty goals.
India’s Gaganyaan mission envisions sending three astronauts to low Earth orbit, requiring the event of a spacecraft that may get crew into space and safely back to the bottom.
As an important step toward this goal, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) conducted drogue parachute deployment tests on the Rail Track Rocket Sled (RTRS) facility, on the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory in the town of Chandigarh between Aug. 8 and Aug. 10, in accordance with ISRO.
The drogue parachutes are mortar-deployed conical ribbon-type parachutes with a diameter of 19 feet (5.8 meters). These are an important a part of getting the Gaganyaan crew module safely back to the bottom, serving to stabilize the spacecraft and reduce its velocity during reentry to Earth’s atmosphere.
Video released by ISRO shortly after the trials shows the successful deployment of a drogue chute while traveling at high velocity on a rocket-powered rail track sled.
The drogue chutes will next be tested during a high-altitude abort test on Test Vehicle Demonstration 1 (TV-D1) in late September or early October, if all goes in accordance with plan.
The Gaganyaan crew module will probably be decelerated by a posh system of 10 parachutes, in accordance with ISRO. These are two apex cover separation parachutes, followed by a pair of drogue parachutes to stabilize the module. Three pilot chutes will then each extract three essential parachutes to ready the module for a protected landing.
ISRO earlier this yr conducted recovery tests, collaborating with the Indian navy to get better a mock crew module from a closed pool.
Further major steps will see ISRO conduct a pair of uncrewed flights to check and validate Gaganyaan’s technology in low Earth orbit and make sure the modified Launch Vehicle Mark-3 rocket can safely carry humans to orbit. These are scheduled to occur in late 2023 and the primary half of 2024.
The primary crewed Gaganyaan flight could launch as soon as late 2024. It would carry three Indian astronauts on a brief orbital test flight. At present, only america, Russia and China have the flexibility to launch people to space.