Gaganyaan G1 mission

Why in News?

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) began the ‘stacking,’ or assembly, of HLVM3 at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.

It is the 1^st of 3 un-crewed test missions that will lead up to India’s maiden human spaceflight.
Aim – To mimic - end to end - the actual flight and validate critical technologies and capabilities including the Human-rated Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (HLVM3).
Activity – It will place the orbital module in a 170 km x 430 km elliptical orbit around the earth.
Once the orbital module de-orbits, the crew module will separate for controlled re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere and splashdown in the Bay of Bengal

December 18, 2024 coincides with the 10^th anniversary of the sub-orbital Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE) mission of 2014.

HLVM3 – Human rated launch vehicle, HLVM3, is derived from LVM3 and designed with enhanced reliability to meet human safety considerations.

It is a 3-stage vehicle with a payload capacity of about 10 tonnes to LEO.
The vehicle is 53 meters tall and weighs 640 tonnes.
Orbital module components – The service module and the crew module together make up the orbital module
The crew module is progressing at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, at Thumba in Kerala.
Once the crew module is ready, it will be transferred to the U.R. Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), Bengaluru, for integration with the service module.
After a series of tests including thermo-vacuum tests at the URSC, the orbital module will be transported to Sriharikota to be placed aboard the launch vehicle.
The crew module is connected to the crew escape system which is placed at the very top.

Orbital Module Components

Launch Vehicle components

References