India to launch first uncrewed Gaganyaan spacecraft in December: Isro chief

Shubhanshu Shukla, who recently returned from the successful Axiom-4 Mission, said the experience from the International Space Station (ISS) would be very useful for the Gaganyaan mission

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chief V Narayanan on Thursday said that Gaganyaan-G1 will be launched in December this year for the first uncrewed mission.

 

Narayanan was addressing a joint press conference with Union minister Jitendra Singh and Group Captains Shubhanshu Shukla and Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair. "Last four months, a lot of accomplishments have been made in this area and the first uncrewed mission G1 is going to be lifted off this year-end, maybe close to December. And in that, the Vyommitra, a half-humanoid is going to fly," Narayanan said.

 

Our own human flight soon: Shukla

 

Adding to it, Shukla, who recently returned from the successful Axiom-4 Mission, said the experience from the International Space Station (ISS) would be very useful for India's own Gaganyaan mission.

 

"All the information I have collected in the past year will be extremely useful to us for our own missions, Gaganyaan and Bharatiya Antariksh Station. Very soon, we shall send someone from our capsule, from our rocket and our soil," Shukla said.

 

Talking about his mission, Shukla expressed gratitude to the government, Isro and all who contributed to the mission, saying it felt like a "mission for the entire nation".

 

"India looks saare jahaan se achcha (better than the entire world) even today", he added, referring to the words first used by Indian astronaut Rakesh Sharma after his space mission in 1984.

 

Nair, who is also a part of India's Gaganyaan crew, said, "A few months from now, we are going to have Diwali. That is the time when Ram ji entered Ayodhya. Over here right now, if I can call myself Lakshman... even though I am older than 'Shuks' (Shukla), I would love to be Lakshman to this Ram any day."

 

"But let's remember Ram and Lakshman got a lot of help from the entire 'vanar sena', that is our fantastic Isro team... otherwise it would not have been possible," he added.

 

Isro's Gaganyaan programme is India’s crewed space mission aiming to send humans into low Earth orbit. It aims to demonstrate the country’s capability to safely launch, sustain, and return astronauts to Earth. The programme includes training astronauts, developing life-support systems, and testing crewed spacecraft. Its success will mark a significant leap in India’s space exploration, positioning the country among a select group capable of launching crewed missions