During the test, an uncrewed crew module was brought back safely to the earth after launching it on a small rocket and simulating an emergency abort command. The test and its forerunners are ISRO’s first major steps towards launching humans to orbit as part of its ‘Gaganyaan’ mission. The first forerunner to the TV-D1 mission was ISRO’s Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1). This test, called Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE), marked India’s second step towards sending its astronauts into space and getting them back. Dr. Guruprasad pointed out that while the SRE weighed about 555 kg, the uncrewed crew module in CARE weighed nearly seven-times as much.

Source: The Hindu October 22, 2023 20:16 UTC