India tests launch abort system for its own manned capsule
India on July 5 successfully tested its own launch abort system for use on its own manned capsule.
The test was over in 259 seconds, during which the crew escape system along with crew module soared skyward, reached an altitude of nearly 2.7 km, swerved over the Bay of Bengal and floated back to Earth under its parachutes about 2.9 km from Sriharikota.
A video showing excerpts of the test can be viewed here.
India has not yet fully committed to building a manned capsule, but they have been moving forward on testing for several years now, and I expect them to make a commitment within the next year. In fact, I think it likely that India will be the fourth nation, after Russia, the U.S., and China, to launch its own astronauts into space on its own spacecraft.
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India on July 5 successfully tested its own launch abort system for use on its own manned capsule.
The test was over in 259 seconds, during which the crew escape system along with crew module soared skyward, reached an altitude of nearly 2.7 km, swerved over the Bay of Bengal and floated back to Earth under its parachutes about 2.9 km from Sriharikota.
A video showing excerpts of the test can be viewed here.
India has not yet fully committed to building a manned capsule, but they have been moving forward on testing for several years now, and I expect them to make a commitment within the next year. In fact, I think it likely that India will be the fourth nation, after Russia, the U.S., and China, to launch its own astronauts into space on its own spacecraft.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
The video clearly shows the capsule separating from the parachutes while still very high in the air. That landing would have caused serious injury, or death, if humans were on board. I can’t image that was a planned sequence of events.
Tom
It could have been intentional, like a drop test.
Wodun … For human rated flight systems, I’d want to see the capsule come down gently into the water during the first test …. not be stress tested right out of the chute. Those tests are usually done well after your proven the design and have committed to it. The rockets worked, the parachutes worked and the capsule probably worked as designed. But, the capsule being dropped from hundreds of feet above the ocean had to be a programming or mechanical error. This was not a 100% successful test IMHO. The Indians, rightfully, should be proud of their achievement but they certainly learned some lessons.
Tom
I side with Tom on this. A drop test would want to be done from a specific height that is intentionally defined, such as from a crane or a fixed structure. Dropping the craft from the parachutes seems a little too random to produce a good test.
This looks like a stray command released both parachutes early, which means that I now assume that the parachutes are intended to be released once the craft is safely in the water.