ISRO Crew Escape System - India's First Milestone for Human Space Programme

ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) had taken it's very first step towards India's Dream for Manned Space Mission.


PAT - Pad Abort Test
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 test was Conducted at  Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
• the PAT will safely parachute future astronauts down in case their space vehicle develops snags while taking off

About PAT

3,770-kg trial crew module, aided by four solid-fuelled rockets built around it, will be flown up to a distance of 2.4 km. On firing, the module will be jettisoned and demonstrate a safe descent with the help of parachutes — all this in around three minutes.

Watch the PAT in action

Context

This PAT is the pre-planning for the proposed ISRO Human Space Flight Programme (HSP).

Till now Only three countries United States of America (USA), Russia and China have human space flight programmes.  Rakesh Sharma in 1984 on USSR SpaceCraft is the only Indian to get into space.

India is expected to launch it's own manned Space mission within 10 years from now.