Gaganyaan Mission Update: India is all set to conduct a major test in its ambitious manned space mission Gaganyaan as early as next month, the mission’s project director R. Hutton said. Reuters. ISRO is currently training four astronauts and is looking to expand the cohort.
The Gaganyaan mission aims to develop a human-habitable space capsule that will carry a three-person crew into a 400 km (250 mi) orbit for three days before returning to safety during a planned landing in the Indian Ocean.
ISRO has said it will explore ways to achieve a sustainable human presence in space once Gaganyaan is completed.
“The team wants to test the crew escape system, which can be used to eject astronauts in emergencies, before conducting a series of other tests before the final launch phase. Safety is the most important thing we need to ensure,” Hutton said Reuters.
About 90.23 billion Indian rupees ($1.1 billion) has been allocated for the mission, which follows the historic landing of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the moon’s south pole.
While an exact timeline has not been shared yet, the mission is expected to be launched before 2024 from the country’s main spaceport, Sriharikota.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Gaganyaan Mission in 2018 during his Independence Day speech, aiming to achieve the mission by 2022.
Due to the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-2021, the speed of the project was hampered and now the space agency aims to launch the project by the end of 2024 or early 2025.
The mission involves sending a crew of three into a 400 km orbit for a three-day mission, followed by their safe return to Earth, as stated on ISRO’s official website. The crew ends their journey with a landing in the waters of the Indian Ocean.
The mission includes the advancement of numerous essential technologies, such as human-rated launch vehicles designed to safely transport crew to space, a system that mimics life support systems similar to Earth’s environment, and emergency escape facilities, among other important components.
(With Reuters inputs)
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Updated: Sep 18, 2023 2:38 PM IST