By- Srushti sharma
The Indian space research agency is scheduled to conduct the first of several critical tests in advance of its intended human space flight in 2025.
The Gaganyaan spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Sriharikota on Saturday at 08:00 local time (02:30GMT).
If the rocket malfunctions, the test will show if the crew can leave the vehicle safely.
If it is successful, it will open the door for more unmanned missions, such as the upcoming launch of a robot into orbit in 2019.
Only until all of these tests are successfully completed will a manned trip with three astronauts be sent into low-Earth orbit; as the government revealed this week, this will most likely happen in 2025.
After the US, China, and the Soviet Union, India would only be the fourth nation to launch a person into space if it is successful.
Prior doing that, though, the space agency Isro must prove that the human-carrying spacecraft can come home safely. And that's exactly what Isro's Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1, scheduled for this Saturday, aims to accomplish.
The "crew escape system (CES)" of the spaceship would be tested, according to Isro chief S Somanath, who called it "a very critical system".
"If anything happens to the rocket, we should be able to keep the crew safe by moving them away at least by 2km (1.2 miles) from the exploding rocket," Mr. Somanath stated.
"So after take-off, once the rocket is 12km to 16km in the sky, we'll trigger the abort system and take the crew escape system away from it," he stated.