CHENNAI: The Coast Guard made excellent time in bringing the 3.5 tonne, experimental module, capable of carrying a crew, from the Bay of Bengal to the Chennai Port in just over 3 days after the ISRO had propelled it into space. According to sources, the ICGS Samudra Pahredhar transported the huge acorn-shaped module to Ennore Port and offloaded it Sunday afternoon.
The module was checked and dispatched with a team of scientists to the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. Sources said that it reached the space centre on Sunday evening.
“The process of disassembly will begin shortly, but only to the extent that the metrics and basic structure will be examined. It contains a mine of data and it will be sent to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre for complete analysis, within the next week,” said a source at ISRO.
The module (CARE) had been sent into space on the GSLV Mark III Experimental Mission, to check if it could withstand atmospheric re-entry without breaking up. The mission went off flawlessly with the module splashing down some 625 km off Indira Point in the Andamans.