India took a "step closer" to realizing its lofty goal of sending people into space by successfully testing a vital maneuver for the projected Gaganyaan mission. The second attempt at 10 a.m. saw the successful launch of the test flight for crew escape system abort demonstration (TV-D1) from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh. The first effort, at 8.45 a.m., had failed.

 

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chief S Somanath in a live telecast from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre said, “I am very happy to announce the successful accomplishment of the TV-D1 mission.” The mission aimed to demonstrate the crew escape system for the Gaganyaan programme through a test vehicle, which reached a speed of Mach 1.2 — slightly more than the speed of sound, as per economic times.

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X saying this launch takes us one step closer to realising India’s first human space flight programme, Gaganyaan. "My best wishes to our scientists at Isro," he said.

 

If India's Gaganyaan program is successful, it will be the fourth country after the United States, Russia, and China to undertake a manned spaceflight mission. With the success of previous missions such as India's third lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3, and the first space-based solar observatory, Aditya L-1, the country's space agency hopes to create an Indian Space Station by 2035 and send the first Indian to the Moon by 2040.

 

Jitendra Singh, India's minister of state for space, described Saturday's successful mission as a "countdown" to India's crewed manned spaceship project Gaganyaan.