Prototype of Crew Capsule for Manned Missions Back Home

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The crew module is back home. The prototype of the crew capsule for future manned missions to space which the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully tested in December arrived here on Friday morning.

Over the next few months, the cupcake-shaped module would undergo tests before being put on display at the Space Museum at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thumba.

The dummy module was more or less built at the VSSC. While its basic structure was designed by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), the VSSC had been responsible for its integration and ‘arming’ it with heat shields and control and guidance mechanisms.

The Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE) had been the sole payload aboard the sub-orbital test-flight of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk-III (GSLV Mk-III) which lifted off from Sriharikota on December 18, 2014.

CARE was dropped back to earth from a height of 126 km and recovered by the Indian Coast Guard from the Bay of Bengal. After arriving at the Kamarajar Port, Ennore, on December 21, it was taken straight to Sriharikota. “The module arrived here on Friday morning,” VSSC director M Chandradathan said. “During the next several months, ISRO scientists will subject it to comprehensive tests,” S Unnikrishnan Nair, CARE payload director, said. “The tests will go on for around six months. After that it will be displayed at the museum,” he said. ISRO is also likely to put it in on a public exhibition here as it had done with the Space Capsule Recovery Experiment-1 (SRE-1) module in 2007.

The then ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan receiving the crew module from Coast Guard officials after recovery from the Bay of Bengal on December 18, 2014. VSSC director M C Dathan is also seen (File picture)