Gaganyaan Mission: ISRO’s Test Vehicle D1 mission was supposed to launch from the first launch pad at 8 a.m.
ISRO is preparing for the launch of a test flight, the first
step toward the Gaganyaan mission.
ISRO postponed the launch of its first Test Vehicle for the Gaganyaan human space travel project on Saturday.
ISRO’s Test Vehicle D1 mission was supposed to take off from the first launch pad at 8 a.m. The unmanned flight test will now take place from Sriharikota at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday.
While the cause for the change in timing was not immediately known, according to PTI news agency, it could be due to rain and hazy weather conditions.
The countdown timer that was displayed on the monitors at Satish Dhawan Space Centre was likewise withdrawn shortly after the timetable modification was announced.
The 13-hour countdown began on Friday at 7 p.m.
The TV-D1 test vehicle is the forerunner to the Gaganyaan program, which seeks to carry humans into space for three days in a 400km Low Earth Orbit and safely return them to Earth.As part of the Gaganyaan mission, the test flight will show the performance of the Crew Escape mechanism. After the rocket launch, it will also test the safe landing in the Bay of Bengal.Notably, ISRO has scheduled roughly 20 significant tests, including three uncrewed Human Rated Launch Vehicle (HLVM3) missions.The Gaganyaan project, named after the Sanskrit word for a ship or conveyance to the sky, was created at a cost of $90 million.