HAL builds crew module for human spaceflight

State-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) Thursday said it has delivered to the Indian space agency a maiden crew module it designed and built for the human spaceflight programme in the future.

"The first module will be equipped with systems required to support crew, navigation, guidance and control systems by the space agency in its upcoming launch vehicle - GSLV-Mark III," HAL chairman R.K. Tyagi said in a statement here.

HAL's aerospace division general manager Jeykar Vedamanickam delivered the crew module structure to the Indian Space Research Organsiation's (ISRO) research and development director John P. Zachariah at the Vikram Sarabha space centre in Thiruvananthapuram.

The state-run space agency plans to launch the country's most powerful rocket - Geosynchronous Satellite Launch (GSLV-Mark III) for an experimental flight in April from its spaceport at Sriharikota off the Bay of Bengal, about 80 km from northeast of Chennai.

Measuring around 42 metres, the advanced version of the heavy rocket will have a lift-off weight of 630 tonnes and can carry four-tonne class satellites into the geostationary transfer orbit, about 36,000 km above earth.

India's maiden manned mission is still at a nascent stage, as space scientists are studying the critical technologies required for the ambitious project, including the crew module and crew escape system.

"As a long-standing partner, we have been contributing to the Indian space programmes such as the maiden Mars mission for which we have provided fuel tanks, structural assemblies and cryogenic engine stage in the GSLV-D5 rocket that was launched Nov 5, carrying the Orbiter to the red planet," Tyagi said in the statement.