While the four astronauts selected for India’s first human space flight programme are undergoing rigorous training to relaunch India’s space journey, a team in Kochi is eagerly waiting for the proud moment when Indian dreams will fly into space. While ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) and DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) are the leaders in space flight, the Indian Navy has taken upon itself the responsibility of recovering the crew module from the Indian Ocean when it returns to Earth after the three-day mission. The Water Survival Training Facility (WSTF) at INS Garuda in Kochi will train the astronauts to survive after landing in the sea.
The Navy is the lead service for crew return from the sea. The module is expected to land in the Indian Ocean and the Navy will deploy its ships in the region. ISRO has marked the waters for landing with 48 backup spots. After landing, an astronaut can open the module’s hatch and jump into the water. He can inflate a personal protection pack and sit in it and wait for the recovery team to arrive.
Captain Shinodh Karthikeyan, officer-in-charge of WSTF, said, “This is our first attempt. The Navy, in collaboration with ISRO scientists, has prepared a standard operating procedure for crew evacuation. The recovery team has been trained to safely evacuate the astronauts even in bad weather conditions.” Established in August 2013, WSTF is the world’s third comprehensive facility providing sea survival lessons for aircrew. The facility has a Survival Training Simulation Theatre (STST) which helps simulate environmental conditions of day/night, rain, winds up to 40 knots, waves of more than 1.5 metres height as well as thunder and lightning effects. Its logo is the ‘Matsya’ incarnation of Lord Vishnu.
Its major components include the Helicopter Underwater Egress Trainer, Cockpit Underwater Egress Trainer, Parachute Drop Trainer, Parachute Drag and Disentanglement Trainer, Rescue Hoist Trainer and Environmental Simulation Equipment. Designed for rigorous survival exercises, the WSTF has trained over 4500 aircrews from the Navy, Air Force and Army to survive a variety of challenging scenarios at sea. “We train the aircrew to survive in rough sea conditions. Their safety is of utmost importance. Naval aircraft fly at low altitudes over the sea as our job is to search for any target, life or capsized boat in the vast ocean. We have to train the aircrew on how to exit the aircraft and survive in case of a sinking in the sea. This facility provides a real-time experience and takes away the fear from the mind of the aircrew,” said Captain Shinodh.
“We called in people from Canada to train our divers in underwater evacuation drills and later started our own instructor course to create a pool of specialist instructors. The training programme began in 2015 and the facility has gradually increased its output to now train over 600 aircrew per year. Now the Indian Air Force, Indian Army and five friendly countries have also joined in. In 10 years, over 4,500 aircrew have trained at WSTF.
They have to undergo the same training again every two years to continue flying,” he said. Gaganyaan Mission This is possibly the first time that astronauts will be lying down in the space module. In the spacecraft used by NASA, astronauts are launched in a sitting position. The rocket with the astronauts will climb 400 km in 13 minutes. As soon as the rocket fires, the crew in the module will be compressed due to the gravitational force of the earth (G-force).
The astronauts will stay in space for three days and the module will orbit the earth 16 times a day. On the third day after the 16th orbit, the module will return to Earth. The astronauts may experience more than 3G of G-force during normal procedures; it can go up to 16G. Therefore, ISRO has decided to launch the astronauts lying down to reduce the effect of G-force. Also, taking lessons from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in which NASA lost seven astronauts including Kalpana Chawla, ISRO has successfully tested the Crew Escape System. In case of a launch vehicle failure, the system will be activated immediately and remove the crew module from the vehicle.
