"Prestigious and challenging": LPSC Director Narayanan on Gaganyaan mission
Sep 05, 2023
Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], September 5 : Expressing his confidence in the upcoming Gaganyaan mission, after the success of the Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L1 mission, the Director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), ISRO, Dr V Narayanan called it a “challenging program”.
On the upcoming Gaganyaan mission, the Director said, “Gaganyaan is a prestigious and challenging program. We will take the scientists in the launch vehicle to the Earth's lower orbit, at 350- 400 lakh kms, and place them in the orbit for a couple of days, before bringing them back safely.”
Gaganyaan project envisages demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching crew of 3 members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3 days mission and bring them back safely to earth, by landing in Indian sea waters.
This program will make India the fourth nation to launch a manned spaceflight mission after the US, Russia, and China.
"LVM 3 vehicle will be used for space flight and scientists will be taken in the orbital module, which has got two systems", he stated, adding, "crew module is the one which will come back. Meanwhile, the orbital module will be taken to the required orbit, where it will be kept for three days before bringing it back."
Dr Narayanan further said, “It is a national program truly. The entire country is involved, and the developments are going on well. The success of Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L1 really gave us a lot of confidence that the ISRO team will do a perfect job.”
Speaking on Chandrayaan-3, V Narayanan said, "We carried out a lot of improvements after Chandrayaan-2. ISRO believes in the organization and team."
"It was the collective wisdom and collective teamwork that contributed to the successful accomplishment of the historical Chandrayan 3 mission”, Dr Narayanan concluded.
On August 23, India took a giant leap as the Chandrayaan-3 lander module successfully landed on the Moon’s South Pole, making it the first country to have achieved the historic feat and bringing to an end the disappointment over the crash landing of the Chandrayaan-2, four years ago.
Earlier in August, The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre successfully conducted a series of Drogue Parachute Deployment Tests at the Rail Track Rocket Sled (RTRS) facility of the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory in Chandigarh.
The Gaganyaan mission entails the safe transportation of astronauts to space and back. A crucial component of this mission is the deployment of drogue parachutes, which play a pivotal role in stabilizing the crew module and reducing its velocity to a safe level during re-entry.
The trial for Gaganyaan might happen in October, according to Union Minister Jitendra Singh.