ISRO successfully conducts 2nd integrated air drop test for Gaganyaan mission

ISRO successfully conducts 2nd integrated air drop test for Gaganyaan mission

¨     ISRO successfully conducts 2nd integrated air drop test for Gaganyaan mission.

¨    The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully conducted the second integrated air drop test (IADT-02) for the upcoming Gaganyaan mission at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

¨     The system is essential to ensure safe recovery of the crew module — the capsule in which astronauts sit during a human flight.

¨    After the module’s release, a parachute system, comprising 10 parachutes, was deployed, helping the capsule decelerate to a safe splashdown speed.

¨     The IADT-02 follows the successful completion of the first IADT, which took place on August 24, 2025, at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

¨     In the first IADT, a 4.8-tonne dummy crew module was dropped from a height of three km by a Chinook helicopter.

¨     Air drop tests recreate the last leg of a spacecraft’s return to the Earth.

¨    An aircraft or helicopter drops the spacecraft from a height to test various systems under different scenarios.

¨     These are the deployment of the parachute system in case the mission is aborted mid-flight, system performance when one parachute fails to open, and the spacecraft’s orientation and safety during splashdown.

¨   India’s first indigenous human spaceflight (Gaganyaan) will be launched from Sriharikota in 2027.