ISRO postponed the launch of its first Test Vehicle for the Gaganyaan human space travel project on Saturday.
ISRO’s Test Vehicle D1 mission was supposed to launch from the first launch pad at 8 a.m. The unmanned flight test will now take place on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. from Sriharikota.
While the cause for the change in schedule was not immediately known, according to PTI news agency, it might be due to rain and hazy weather conditions.
The countdown timer that was shown on the displays at Satish Dhawan Space Centre was likewise withdrawn shortly after the timetable modification was announced.
The 13-hour countdown began on Friday at 7 p.m.
The TV-D1 test vehicle is the forerunner to the Gaganyaan program, which seeks to carry humans into space for three days in a 400km Low Earth Orbit and safely return them to Earth.
As part of the Gaganyaan mission, the test flight will show the functioning of the Crew Escape mechanism. After the rocket launch, it will also test the safe landing in the Bay of Bengal.
ISRO has scheduled roughly 20 significant tests, including three uncrewed Human Rated Launch Vehicle (HLVM3) flights.
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The Gaganyaan project, named after the Sanskrit term for a ship or conveyance to the sky, was created at a cost of $90 billion. If it succeeds, India will be only the fourth country after the Soviet Union, the United States, and China to launch a human into space.
