ISRO to conduct first test flight of Gaganyaan around October 25

The test flight to demonstrate the abort capabilities for Gaganyaan is scheduled around October 25, senior authorities from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said

After the successful Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L1 mission, India is planning to make it big in space exploration. Speaking about the upcoming Gaganyaan mission, Chandrayaan-3 project director P Veeramuthuvel said that they have a clear roadmap and the launch will be happening soon.

"Soft landing in itself is a technology. India is the fourth country to have that. We mastered that. Then only human exploration is possible. You know the Gaganyaan program is coming up. It's a human exploration program. We have the roadmap and we will have the launch soon", Mr Veeramuthuvel said at an event. 

ISRO’s Gaganyaan: Overview

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has begun preparations for unmanned flight tests as part of the Gaganyaan mission.

As per ISRO, the progress of this test flight will make way for more qualification tests and unmanned missions, culminating in the manned Gaganyaan mission with Indian astronauts.

ISRO's wrote on X, "Mission Gaganyaan: ISRO to commence unmanned flight tests for the Gaganyaan mission. Preparations for the Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1), which demonstrates the performance of the Crew Escape System, are underway." 

 

Gaganyaan: Insights 

ISRO's Ahmedabad office will be building two critical systems for the Gaganyaan mission – the cabin systems and communication systems. The cabin will house three seats for astronauts, alongside a lighting framework and two display screens to monitor different boundaries within the lodge.

While the rocket will be built somewhere else, all internal frameworks for Gaganyaan will be created in Ahmedabad. Gaganyaan will be India's first manned space mission, and three astronauts are planned to be sent into an orbit of 400 km over the Earth's surface as part of the mission .

More about Gaganyaan

Demonstrator missions in front of the human spaceflight mission incorporate integrated air drop test (IADT), pad abort test (PAT) and test vehicle (TV) flights; which are predicted to be booked prior to the first quarter of 2024, when Isro is planning to launch the uncrewed mission. Security and dependability of all systems will be demonstrated in automated missions going before the manned mission, Isro has mentioned.

Predicted to take off around the final quarter of 2024 or in early 2025, astronauts who have been chosen for the mission are at present going through preparation at different Isro facilities. Prior to this week, the Indian Air Force (IAF) delivered the first-look pictures of these astronauts, who will be called 'Gaganauts', without revealing their identities.