About the Mission

• Announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018, Gaganyaan is the first Indian Human Space Flight Programme (HSP) with the objective to demonstrate the capability to send humans to low earth orbit on board an Indian launch vehicle and bring them back to earth safely.
• A geosynchronous orbit is a high Earth orbit that allows satellites to match Earth’s rotation. Located at 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) above Earth’s equator, this position is a valuable spot for monitoring weather, communications and surveillance.
• The spacecraft, which is being developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), consists of a service module and a crew module, collectively known as the Orbital Module.

• With this, India could potentially become the fourth country to send a man to space, after the erstwhile USSR, the US and China. (Denmark also has a manned space flight scheduled for 2022)
• The first of the two pre-Gaganyaan flights with a humanoid will be launched soon along with some of the six shortlisted micro-gravity experiments.
• GSLV Mk III, the three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle, will be used to launch Gaganyaan as it has the necessary payload capability.

Recent developments

• Four pilots from the Indian Air Force (IAF) were shortlisted to receive training as astronauts of Gaganyaan.
• The chosen astronauts have begun their 12-month training at the Gagarin Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Centre (GCTC) in Moscow.
• ISRO unveiled its first ‘woman’ astronaut ‘Vyomamitra’, a Lady robot. It is a half-humanoid. Vyommitra will ride to space in the first test flight of the human space mission, Gaganyaan.
• The humanoid will simulate the human functions required for space before real astronauts take off.

• Recently, Government of India announced that the final crewed Gaganyaan mission will be launched in 2023.

Why in News?

• The current status of Gaganyaan programme is as follows:

1. An Astronaut training facility has been commissioned in Bengaluru. Training activities are progressing well at the newly commissioned Astronaut training facility.
2. The design of all systems and sub-systems for Gaganyaan has been completed. Realisation of the same is in different stages of progress.
3. Long duration qualification test of human rated cryogenic engine and First phase testing of human rated VIKAS Engine completed. First phase of demonstration tests for Gaganyaan service module propulsion system completed.
4. The MoU, Contracts and Implementation Arrangements (IA) related activities with both national and international agencies are progressing well. The design of various human centric products has been completed and various prototypes are under realization.
5. Roles and responsibility for crew recovery operations and rehearsals finalized. Detailed operational requirements for nominal missions scenarios worked out.
6. The activities related to development of microgravity experiments have commenced. The conceptual design for experiments is under review.

Reference:

1. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1808586