ISRO Orbital Vehicle - Description

Description

The OV is a fully autonomous three-ton capsuled spacecraft designed to carry a 3 member crew to orbit and safely return to the Earth after a mission duration of few orbits to two days.

The space capsule will have life control and environment control systems. It will be equipped with emergency mission abort and emergency escape that can be done at the first stage and second stage of the rocket. The illustration of the spacecraft showed a main engine and smaller orientation engines arranged in a light package around the base of the capsule, indicating an earth-orbit maneuvering capability was to be included. The nose of the original version of the OV was free for a docking mechanism, but primary entry was evidently through a side hatch secured by explosive bolts.

The Orbital Vehicle is slated to be launched on the GSLV Mk II launcher.

About 16 minutes after liftoff from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota, the rocket will inject the OV into an orbit 300–400 km from the Earth. The capsule would return for a splashdown in the Bay of Bengal.

The Indian OV spacecraft will be significantly smaller than current Russian Soyuz, Chinese Shenzhou, planned US Orion or past Apollo spaceships but larger than the past US Gemini spacecraft.

While many technological elements to put together a manned flight are already available, ISRO would need to develop many new and novel technologies to ensure a foolproof life-support system, safety, reliability and an escape system for the crew. And in order to perfect the reentry techniques considered crucial for a manned flight, ISRO is planning to carry out three more flights of Space Recovery Capsules (SRE) and few unmanned flights of the OV spaceship.

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