Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the identities of the four astronauts chosen for India’s maiden human spaceflight program, Gaganyaan, expected to launch in 2024-25. The selected Indian Air Force pilots underwent training at Russia’s Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.
During his visit to Kerala, PM Modi presented ‘astronaut wings’ to the designated astronauts at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, commending India’s strides in space technology, which he believes are nurturing scientific curiosity among the youth.
The Gaganyaan initiative aims to demonstrate India’s human spaceflight capabilities by sending a crew of three members on a three-day mission to a 400 km orbit and safely returning them to Earth. Key prerequisites include developing a human-rated launch vehicle, life support systems, and crew management protocols.
To ensure safety and reliability, precursor missions like Integrated Air Drop Test, Pad Abort Test, and Test Vehicle flights are planned before the manned mission. The dependable LVM3 rocket has been identified as the launch vehicle for Gaganyaan.
India’s recent achievements, including the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon’s South Pole and the launch of Aditya-L1, its first solar mission in 2023, have bolstered its position in the global space arena and spurred growth in the domestic private space sector.
Looking ahead, India aims to establish the ‘Bharatiya Antariksha Station’ by 2035 and send its first astronaut to the Moon by 2040, marking significant milestones in its space exploration journey.
