Gaganyaan mission: Isro to carry out final launch in 2025, says MoS Singh

Union Minister of State (Mos) for Atomic Energy and Space Dr Jitendra Singh on Sunday informed that the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will launch the Gaganyaan mission in 2025.

The Gaganyaan project envisages a demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of three members into an orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission and bringing them back safely to earth by landing in Indian sea waters.

Stating that 2024 is "very important" for the 'Gaganyaan', Singh said that multiple tests will be carried out to achieve the objectives of the mission.

"We are going to the final launch in 2025. This year is very important because the test flights will be done this year. It is important and exciting to send a human being into space, but it is equally important to get the human being back safe and sound. We have a crew module and an operation module and the test flights would ensure that all these functions happen as we have envisaged," Singh told reporters in Jammu.

He further informed that the last flight before the actual mission will carry a female robo 'Voyo Mitra', which will simulate the activities of astronauts.

"The last flight before the action flight would be carrying a female robo named 'Voyo Mitra'. She would perform all those activities that a human astronaut would perform. It's going to be a whole-government approach. Around the same time when we have an Indian going into space in 2025, we will also have an Indian going into the sea bed. In 2025, we will go to the lowest seabed, and that's going to generate a blue economy," he said.

Earlier, India achieved a major milestone on Saturday, placing its first dedicated solar mission, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, in the Halo orbit.

The country went gaga over this historic achievement, especially since this mission came at the back of India's moon landing, the Chandrayaan-3 mission last August.

Aditya-L1 reached Lagrange Point L1 on Saturday, which is about 1.5 million km from Earth. The PSLV-C57.1 rocket carrying the Aditya-L1 orbiter lifted off successfully from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, in last September.