New Delhi:
Indian space agency ISRO today successfully launched its unmanned test flight for its first human spaceflight mission – ‘Gaganyaan’ – in the second attempt after the lift-off was briefly put on hold.
“The lift off was put on hold initially after ground computer detected non conformance. We could identify it and correct it very quickly,” said ISRO chief S Somnath.
The ISRO Chief said the purpose of the mission was to demonstrate the crew escape system. “The vehicle went slightly above the speed of sound, before it initiated the crew escape system,” he said explaining what went wrong during the first attempt.
“We will come back with more data and analysis after recovery of the crew modules from the sea,” Mr Somnath said.
The ambitious space mission is an effort to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target that ISRO sets up an Indian Space Station by 2035 and launch Indian astronaut to the Moon by 2040.
