Around 730 seconds after it lifted off at 9.30 AM from the Second Launch Pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, the crew module--CARE (Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment)--splashed down into the Bay of Bengal, after separating from the LVM3-X rocket with active S200 and L110 propulsion stages.
Three levels of parachutes specially designed by Agra- based DRDO lab Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment helped the crew module descend safely into the sea, about 180 kms from Indira Point, the southern tip of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Weighing three tonnes, the 2.7 metre tall cupcake-shaped crew module with a diameter of 3.1 metre features aluminium alloy internal structure with composite panels and ablative thermal protection systems and can carry two to three astronauts.
The module would be shipped to Kamarajar Port in Ennore near Chennai, from where it would be taken to Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala for further study.
"We have made it again...ISRO's capability of launching heavier payloads has come to shape and this will change our destiny and our capability has significantly enhanced. The cryogenic engine is under development and it would take two years," GSLV Mk III Project Director S Somanath said.