Flight Performance of Crew Escape System during Pad Abort Condition

Abstract

As a prologue to the Gaganyaan project, ISRO successfully test fired one of the critical and essential technologies for human space flight, i.e. Crew Escape System (CES) Pad Abort Test on 5 July 2018. This is a strategically important flight as a part of various qualification tests that ensures emergency escape measure to quickly pull the Crew Module (CM) along with the astronauts to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in case of any eventuality. CES along with CM weighing of 12.6 tonnes lifted-off at 07.00 h from the Sounding Rocket Complex Launch Pad, Sriharikota. The vehicle was taken to an altitude of 3 km using a specially developed solid motor with multiple reverse flow and scarfed nozzles with 10 g acceleration. Around 330 sensors on-board were used to measure its performance. The data obtained ensured that the adopted design philosophy and approaches such as CM reorientation, aerodynamic data with jet-on environment, mission sequences, performance of special solid motors, deceleration system, etc. were in order. This provides more confidence to progress to the next level of demonstration as a part of Gaganyaan.