New Delhi: Gaganyaan, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s first human spaceflight mission, is now likely to take flight only by 2026. Before the final mission, however, the Indian space agency will undertake an uncrewed mission with a humanoid robot, tentatively around the first half of 2025.
Union Minister for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said at a press conference here Tuesday that a launch date for the crewed Gaganyaan mission is yet to be finalised. Considering the current preparations, the launch is likely only by the end of 2025 or early 2026, he said. “We are trying for late 2025, but there is a good chance that it might happen only by early 2026,” Singh said.
Singh said that the delays are also because ISRO is ensuring “utmost safety of astronauts”.
Gaganyaan, which has already faced multiple delays, will be India’s first human spaceflight mission. It aims to demonstrate ISRO’s human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of three members to a 400-km low-Earth orbit for a three-day mission and bringing them back safely.
If India succeeds in sending humans to space from the nation’s own soil, it will become the fourth country in the world to have achieved this feat after the erstwhile Soviet Union, the United States and China.
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Preparations in full swing
Senior scientists from ISRO told ThePrint that the space agency has made significant progress towards launching the uncrewed Gaganyaan mission. At least one such test flight will be undertaken before the three Indian astronauts take off.
Four elite fighter pilots from the Indian Air Force are currently being trained in various facilities. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had introduced the astronaut designates, of whom three would be chosen for the final mission.
The test flights will ensure the safe travel and return of astronauts.
“We have started the assembly for the human-rated LVM-3 (Launch Vehicle Mark-3)—the launch vehicle for the mission—at Satish Dhawan Space Centre for the uncrewed spaceflight,” a senior ISRO official, who wished not to be named, told ThePrint.
On 18 December, ISRO conducted a key recovery test with the Indian Coast Guard, in which the crew module was recovered from the turbulent seas of the Bay of Bengal.
An LVM3-X rocket lifted a model of the crew module, weighing around 3775 kilograms, to a suborbital altitude of 126 kilometres. The module was then controlled using thrusters to orient it, in order to ensure a safe re-entry. “The crew module descended using parachutes to have a smooth splashdown at the designated location,” an ISRO document read.
Humanoid in space
Singh said that around March 2025, a humanoid robot named Vyommitra will be sent to space to test all contingencies before humans are sent for the mission.
Vyommitra, designed as India’s first female humanoid astronaut, will have its skull weighing 800 grams, measuring around 200mmx220mm, and is made of high-strength aluminium alloy. This material was chosen to withstand high pressure and vibrations in space. The robot will mimic every aspect of a human body and its responses to space travel.
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)
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