New Delhi: Space agency ISRO has successfully conducted the second integrated air drop test (IADT-02) for the upcoming Gaganyaan mission at the space station in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota.
The system is essential to ensure safe recovery of the crew module — the capsule in which astronauts sit during a human flight — during re-entry and landing.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for successfully conducting the test.
“Congratulations #ISRO for the successful accomplishment of Second Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-02) for #Gaganyaan, India’s first Human Space flight scheduled next year. The second Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-02) was successfully conducted at Satish Dhawan Space Station Sriharikota,” Singh said in a post on X.
The IADT-02 follows the successful completion of the first IADT, which took place August 24, 2025 at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
Air drop tests recreate the last leg of a spacecraft’s return to the Earth. An aircraft or helicopter drops the spacecraft from a height to test various systems under different scenarios.
These are the deployment of the parachute system in case the mission is aborted mid-flight, system performance when one parachute fails to open, and the spacecraft’s orientation and safety during splashdown, etc.
In the first IADT, a 4.8-tonne dummy crew module was dropped from a height of three km by a Chinook helicopter.
After the module’s release, a parachute system, comprising 10 parachutes, was deployed, helping the capsule decelerate to a safe splashdown speed.