ISRO’s critical crew drop test for human space flight successful

The Crew Escape System is an emergency escape measure designed to quickly pull the crew module along with the astronauts to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of a launch abort.

The first test (Pad Abort Test) demonstrated the safe recovery of the crew module in case of an exigency at the launch pad.

After a five-hour countdown, the Crew Escape System along with the simulated crew module with a mass of 12.6 tonnes, lifted off at 7 am at the opening of the launch window from its pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, about 100 km from north Chennai.

The test was over in 259 seconds, during which the Crew Escape System along with the crew module soared skyward, then arched out over the Bay of Bengal and floated back to Earth under its parachutes about 2.9 km from Sriharikota.

The crew module reached an altitude of nearly 2.7 km under the power of its seven specifically designed quick acting solid motors to take away the crew module to a safe distance without exceeding the safe g-levels.