Indigenously developed parachutes for Gaganyaan mission sent to Isro from Agra

Agra: A set of parachutes developed for the first uncrewed mission of the Gaganyaan programme by the Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE), an Agra-based laboratory under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), was sent to the Indian Space Research Organisation's (Isro) satellite integration and testing facility in Bengaluru on Monday.ADRDE said the parachutes will be used for the "safe return of the capsule that will carry astronauts under the proposed Gaganyaan programme."The parachute system comprises 10 parachutes designed for sequential deployment, said the lab. During flight, the sequence begins with two "apex cover separation parachutes", the protective cover for the crew module's parachute compartment. This is followed by deployment of two "drogue parachutes" to stabilise the module and reduce its speed.After the drogue chutes are released, three "pilot parachutes" will each extract one of the three "main parachutes," which will further slow down the crew module for a safe landing, ADRDE said. Each component of the system has cleared sub-level testing. The ADRDE team will assemble the parachutes with the crew module at Isro's testing facility in Bengaluru. Isro chairman V Narayanan announced on Tuesday that the launch of India's first human space flight, aimed at sending a three-member crew to low-Earth orbit (400 km) for a three-day mission, has been pushed to the first quarter of 2027. The first uncrewed mission under the project is expected to launch later this year and a half-humanoid robot, Vyommitra, will be sent as part of the uncrewed flight, he added. (With agency inputs)