Gaganyaan: Elon Musk Congratulates ISRO on Vikas Engine Test

The founder of the aerospace manufacturing giant- SpaceX Elon Musk in  just one word had congratulated ISRO for successfully conducting the third long-duration "hot test" of Vikas engine on Wednesday.

A key part of the ambitious Gaganyaan mission which will be the country's first manned mission to space, which will take Indians to space in an its own vehicle.

Replying to a tweet by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the engine test, Musk just wrote one word -- "Congratulations!" with India's flag emoticon.

Check out the tweet here:

#ISRO on July 14, 2021 has successfully conducted the hot test of the liquid propellant Vikas Engine for the core L110 liquid stage of the human rated GSLV MkIII vehicle, as part of engine qualification requirements for the #Gaganyaan Programme

Read More: https://t.co/cqYatVNwsf pic.twitter.com/4MFvHIBgVW

— ISRO (@isro) July 14, 2021

The test was done for the core L110 liquid stage of the human rated GSLV MkIII vehicle, as part of the engine qualification requirements for the Gaganyaan programme, the space agency said in a statement. The engine was fired for 240 seconds at the test facility of ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC), Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu.

The performance of the engine met the test objectives and the engine parameters were closely matching with the predictions during the entire duration of the test, it said. The objective of the Gaganyaan programme is to demonstrate the capability to send humans to low earth orbit onboard an Indian launch vehicle and bring them back to earth.

As per the Union Ministry of State (Independent charge) of Space, the first unmanned mission is planned in December 2021 and the second unmanned one in 2022-23 followed by the human spaceflight demonstration.

Four Indian astronaut candidates have already undergone generic space flight training in Russia as part of the Gaganyaan programme and the ISRO's heavy-lift launcher GSLV Mk III has been identified for the mission. The initial target was to launch human spaceflight before the 75th anniversary of India's independence on August 15, 2022.

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