ISRO will conduct the TV-D1 test flight for Gaganyaan tomorrow. Here's where, how you can watch it

The Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO is gearing up for a significant milestone in its quest for human spaceflight, with the Gaganyaan vehicle test flight scheduled for 7.30 AM IST on Saturday, October 21. During this crucial test, ISRO will assess the mid-flight crew escape system of an early version of the Gaganyaan crew module.

The Gaganyaan test flight will be made accessible to the public through various livestreaming platforms, including ISRO’s website, Facebook, and YouTube. For those who prefer to watch on television, the mission will be broadcast live on DD National.

The upcoming TV-D1 Test Flight will utilize a single-stage liquid propellant-based rocket to carry an unpressurized version of the crew module. Following the launch, teams from ISRO and the Indian Navy will practice the recovery of the crew module after it splashes down in the Bay of Bengal.

ISRO’s recent success with the Chandrayaan-3 mission, which marked India’s entry into the exclusive club of nations capable of soft-landing a spacecraft on the Moon, underscores the country’s growing prowess in space exploration. The distinguished members of this club include the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China. With the Gaganyaan mission, India aspires to achieve an even more remarkable feat.

The Gaganyaan mission aims to propel India into an elite league of nations with the capability to launch crewed spacecraft. If all goes according to plan, ISRO will demonstrate India’s human spaceflight capabilities by launching a crewed spacecraft into a 400-kilometre orbit for a three-day mission and safely returning the astronauts to Earth by landing in Indian sea waters.

The TV-D1 Test Flight represents one of several precursor missions designed to validate the systems to be employed during the actual Gaganyaan mission. Although the test flight employs a single-stage test vehicle with a single Vikas engine, the eventual mission will be launched using the same LVM3 (Launch Vehicle Mark-3) that successfully launched the Chandrayaan-3 mission.