Gaganyaan Mission’s First Uncrewed Spaceflight Is Most Likely This Month
The Rajya Sabha was told on Thursday that India plans to send its first uncrewed or experimental mission within the next three weeks as part of Gaganyaan, which aims to demonstrate ISRO’s human spaceflight capability. A crewed spaceflight mission is scheduled for October to December of 2026.
India is getting ready for the Gaganyaan mission’s first uncrewed spaceflight, which is anticipated to take place in the following three weeks, most likely by the end of December 2024. An important step in showcasing the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) capacity for human spaceflight is this mission, known as G1.
This uncrewed trip will come before a crewed mission planned for late 2026, according to updates on the timeline given by Jitendra Singh, the Minister of State for Science and Technology, at a recent Rajya Sabha session.
After China, Russia, and the United States, India hopes to become the fourth nation to launch humans into space with the Gaganyaan initiative, which was initially announced in 2018.
Testing of various systems required for human spaceflight is the goal of the first uncrewed mission. Two more uncrewed flights (G2 and G3) are scheduled for 2025 after this. The purpose of this mission is to showcase ISRO’s human spaceflight capabilities through an experimental launch.
ISRO is prepared for the mission in terms of technology. Singh said that the human-rated launch vehicle’s liquid and solid propulsion stages are prepared for integration and that crucial parts, such as the C32 cryogenic stage, are almost finished. The structures for the service and crew modules are complete.
According to Minister Singh, the C32 cryogenic stage is almost finished, and the solid and liquid propulsion stages of the human-rated launch vehicles are prepared for flight integration. He emphasized that flight integration efforts are underway and that the structures for the Crew Module and Service Module have been completed. He did point out some major obstacles, though, especially in obtaining a steady supply of semiconductor parts, which are essential for the hardware of the mission.
Several sources have been discovered to overcome these issues and guarantee the timely delivery of necessary components. To raise industry knowledge of the quality standards for human space flights, the Gaganyaan Industry Meet was arranged.
In reference to astronaut training, Singh stated that the chosen astronauts, known as “Gaganyaatris,” have completed two of the three training semesters.
