Table of Contents
BEFORE WE BEGIN MCQ FOR YOU ALL
Consider the following statements about Human Space Missions –
1. Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space and he was an
American.
2. FirstWoman in space wasValentina Tereshkova and she
was from the USSR
A. Only 1 is true
B. Only 2 is true
C. Both are true
D. Both are false
HUMAN SPACE PROGRAMME
• India’s first and only man to have gone to space Wg Cdr Rakesh Sharma (Retd) – 128th man to have gone to space on April 3, 1984.
• He had logged seven days, 21 hours and 40 minutes in space after the Russian spacecraft Soyuz T-11 docked at the Salyut 7 Station. It is from here he sent out the famous Saare Jahan Se
Achcha message to the Earth, while on a conversation with then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He was a Squadron Leader with the Indian Air Force then.
HUMAN SPACE PROGRAMME
•Namira Salim is the only Pakistani who have been into space. She is the founder of Richard Branson’s virgin galactic. She was in the selected 100 people out of 44000 people in 2005 through virgin galactic. Launched into world press by Richard Branson himself. It was the
world’s first commercial air liner. So she was actually a space tourist.
NOTES
Since the retirement of the US Space Shuttle in 2011, only Russia and China have maintained
human spaceflight capability with the Soyuz program and Shenzhou program. Currently, all
expeditions to the International Space Station use Soyuz vehicles, which remain attached to the
station to allow quick return if needed
INDIA – THE 4TH NATION?
“I am happy there is some movement in this direction (manned space flight) now. When we look at all the facts, we know the GSLV-Mk-III has reached success. It’s heartening to know that the groundwork is proceeding parallel. When the resources are made available, there no dearth of resources, more so with ISRO,”
– Rakesh Sharma
NOTES
NOTES
•The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday successfully conducted a pad abort test (PAT) on its experimental crew escape system (CES).
•The successful test on the technology demonstrator brought ISRO a step closer to its ambitious and yet-tobe-named future manned mission – the Human Spaceflight Programme (HSP).
OTHER TESTS
Among the five critical technologies that got validated during today’s missions were:
1) Wireless communication which ensured reduced mass of the system. It means data
transfer done without cables.
2) Digital telemetry was used for the first time (from analog) that enabled less usage of
power.
3) Ka-band altimeter that enables highly accurate landing information when the module is
descending. This is key to Chandrayaan-2 mission.
4) A new tech where the data was linked to GSAT-6 and was relayed back.
5) NAVIC was used to predict the accurate position in a highly dynamic environment and at
very high speeds. NAVIC prediction was bang on despite high rate of change and velocity.
INDIAN HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT PROGRAMME
• On 9 August 2007 the then Chairman of the ISRO, G Madhavan Nair, indicated the agency is “seriously considering” a human spaceflight mission. He further indicated that within a
year ISRO would report on its development of new space capsule technologies
• Since the ISRO does not have a human-rated launch vehicle or the budget from the government to undertake such a flight, it will not happen before 2021. Mission will be carried out on board a home-grown GSLV-III rocket
THE SOYUZ INCIDENT
• The Soyuz incident, which occurred in September 1983, came as the cosmonauts were preparing for launch to the Salyut 7 space station aboard a mission that would have been
designated Soyuz T-10 had it reached orbit.
• Ninety seconds before the planned liftoff, one of the Soyuz-U rocket’s boosters began leaking propellant onto the launch pad. This ignited, and the fire quickly spread to the rocket.
THE SOYUZ INCIDENT
• The test demonstrates a launch pad abort, where a problem before or at the moment of liftoff requires that the crew be ejected to safety from their rocket.
• This is the scenario in which the escape system of a Soviet Soyuz 7K-ST spacecraft saved the lives of cosmonauts Vladimir Titov and Gennady Strekalov, the only time an escape
mechanism has so far been called upon during an actual manned mission.
OTHER NATIONS
• While no engineer hopes that a launch escape system will ever be needed, it must still be well tested as it is vital to protect the lives of astronauts in what is still a dangerous occupation. NASA has conducted two pad abort tests for its Orion spacecraft – the first,
Max Launch Abort System (MLAS) in 2009, tested a pusher-type system that was proposed for use with the Ares I rocket.
• The second, a year later, demonstrated the tower-based system that will be used on future missions. SpaceX conducted a pad abort test with the Dragon v2 spacecraft in 2015. Boeing will
conduct a similar test ahead of Starliner’s first manned mission.
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