First announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address in 2018, Gaganyaan will be India’s first human space flight mission.
As part of the Gaganyaan mission, ISRO plans to send a crew of three astronauts to a low-Earth orbit at 400 km for 3 days and bring them back to Earth by landing in the Indian seas.
Image credit: ISRO
In the short term, the mission aims to demonstrate indigenous space flight capabilities. In the long term, it aims to lay the foundation for sustained Indian human exploration programmes.
With a budget of ₹9,023 crore, the programme consists of one manned space and two unmanned missions.
ISRO’s LVM3 rocket was re-configured to meet human rating requirements and named HLVM3, or Human Rated LVM3, and will be the launch vehicle for the mission.
Image credit: ISRO
Group Captain Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Angad Prathap, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan and Wing Commander Shubanshu Shukla have been selected for India’s first crew mission.
Image credit: PIB
On August 2, the ISRO announced that Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla and Group Captain Prashanth Nair will travel to the US to train for a mission to the International Space Station.
Gaganyaan-1, India’s first test flight of the mission, will be conducted in 2024. It will be followed by Gaganyaan-2, the second test flight will be conducted in 2025.
Image credit: PIB
The first crewed mission, Gaganyaan-3, is scheduled for 2026. Its success will make India the fourth country in the world to independently send humans to space after the USSR, the US and China.
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