India is developing critical technologies for launching manned missions in space and preparing a document on it, a top official said on Saturday.
"Critical technologies are being developed for our human space programme as it is India's dream to put a man in space. A mission document is in the making," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)[1] Chairman K. Sivan told the media at an aerospace event.
Citing the space agency's successful maiden unmanned pad abort test on Thursday at its Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh for the safe escape of the crew in an emergency, Sivan said that very complex technology was used for the trial, with a unique motor for fast-burning.
"The technology is very essential for our manned missions in the future, as the motor's performance was very good. Using aerodynamics, the module was turned in a favourable direction to open the parachutes," he said.
The state-run ISRO's technology demonstrator is the first in a series of tests to qualify as a crew escape system, critical for a manned mission.
"We are only in the preparation stage. We need to develop much more. We are in the process of refining a document on the manned mission for review and interactions with stakeholders, including the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL)," said Sivan.
The crew escape system is an emergency escape measure designed to quickly pull the crew module along with the astronauts to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of a launch abort.
The first pad abort test demonstrated the safe recovery of the crew module in case of any exigency at the launch pad," ISRO said in a statement earlier.
Admitting that the scientists had to work...