Gaganyaan Mission Test Flight Launch: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Saturday said that the it has successfully launched the First Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1) of its’ ambitious manned space mission Gaganyaan. The launch was completed in the second attempt after it was briefly put on hold due to an internal initial glitch.

The lift off was put on hold at five seconds, moments before its scheduled blast off after the engines failed to achieve ignition. Explaining what went wrong, ISRO chief S Somnath said, “The lift off was put on hold initially after ground computer detected non conformance. We could identify it and correct it very quickly.”

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This was the first of a series of key tests ISRO has planned to carry out ahead of its Gaganyaan mission to take astronauts into space in 2025. The test was aimed at demonstrating whether the crew can safely escape the rocket in case it malfunctions when the actual Gaganyaan mission is launched in 2025.

“The vehicle went slightly above the speed of sound, before it initiated the crew escape system…The 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,” he said.

“We will come back with more data and analysis after recovery of the crew modules from the sea,”  Somnath added.

This was the first of a series of key tests ISRO has planned to carry out ahead of its Gaganyaan mission to take astronauts into space in 2025. The successful launch of the TV-D1 test have now paved the way for other unmanned mission, including sending a robot into the space next year.

What went wrong in the first attempt?

The lift off was put on hold at 5 seconds and has now been called off. Video shared by news agency ANI showed the ignition started but as the countdown reached 5 seconds, it stopped and the ISRO announced it has been put on hold.

Speaking about the setback, ISRO chief Somanath said that the the launch has been put on hold after engine ignition didn’t happen in the nominal course. The ground computers which were doing the function withheld the launch, Somanath said.

The ISRO chief further informed about the next plan of action and said that the space agency will now identify the issues that stopped the launch. The launch vehicle, Somanath said, is safe and they will now look at what went wrong before attempting the next launch.

“We will come back soon… the computer which is doing function has withheld the launch, we will correct it and reschedule the launch soon,” the ISRO chief had said.