India’s foray into space gathered steam with the Indian Navy & ISRO releasing the Gaganyaan Recovery Training Plan at Water Survival Training Facility (WSTF) INS Garuda, Kochi on 24 May 23.

The training document was jointly released by VAdm Atul Anand, Director General of Naval Operations, Dr Unnikrishnan Nair, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, (VSSC) and Dr Umamaheshwaran R, Director, Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) of ISRO

The document outlines the training plan for recovery of the Crew Module of the mission. It defines overall requirements wrt training of various teams participating in recovery operations incl Divers, MARCOs, Medical Specialists, Communicators, Technicians & Naval Aviators.

The Recovery training is planned in incremental phases starting from unmanned recovery to manned recovery training in harbour and open sea conditions. The recovery operations are being led by the Indian Navy in co-ordination with other Government agencies.

The Crew Module Recovery Model was also formally handed over to Indian Navy at its state of the art Water Survival Training Facility (WSTF) at INS Garuda, Kochi. The mass and shape simulated mockup will be used for familiarisation and training of Gaganyaan recovery teams.

The Indian Navy will also assist ISRO by undertaking a series of trials to fine tune the Standard Operating Procedures for training the crew and recovery teams of Gaganyaan.

The safety and reliability of all systems will be proven in unmanned missions preceding the manned missions. The document outlines the training plan for recovery of the crew module of the mission.

“It defines overall requirements with regard to the training of various teams participating in recovery operations, including divers, MARCOs (Navy commandos), medical specialists, communicators, technicians, and naval aviators,” said a Navy spokesperson.

The pre-requisites for the Gaganyaan mission include the development of many critical technologies including a human-rated launch vehicle for carrying the crew safely to space, a life support system to provide an earth-like environment to the crew in space, crew emergency escape provision and evolving crew management aspects for training, recovery and rehabilitation of crew, the ISRO stated.

Various precursor missions are planned for demonstrating the technology preparedness levels before carrying out the actual Human Space Flight mission, ISRO had earlier said.