On Feb. 27, 2024, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ISRO chief S. Somanath unveiled the first group of Gaganyaan Astronauts.
The astronauts, Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan, Angad Pratap, and Shubhanshu Shukla, were selected in 2019 among Indian Air Force pilots.
During the inaugural ceremony held today at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, Hon'ble PM unveiled the Indian Astronaut Logo and awarded the 'अंतरिक्ष यात्री पंख' to the four IAF Astronauts.#IAF will be working in 'Mission Mode' along with @isro to achieve… pic.twitter.com/x6tZIleodq
— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) February 27, 2024
In early 2020, ISRO sent the four test pilots to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia for initial training which was completed in 2021.
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The program
Gaganyaan is India’s first human space flight program, and its first mission will send three astronauts to an orbit of 400km and will bring them back to Earth after three days.
In October 2023 ISRO carried out the “Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1”, a high-altitude abort test to demonstrate the crew escape system that will be used in the event of an emergency to quickly separate the capsule from its launch vehicle.
After this successful test, the agency announced that the first three robotic test flights for the capsule are scheduled for 2024 and 2025 and the first crewed flight is planned for late 2025.
Onboard the unmanned flights there will be a female-looking humanoid robot called Vyommitra (space friend); it’s able to perform microgravity experiments and monitor the correct functioning of the capsule.
Vyommitra will be also able to support Indian and international astronauts during Gaganyaan missions by speaking Hindi and English and executing their commands.
If the manned flight succeeds, India will become the fourth country to send a human into space after Russia, the USA, and China.
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The astronauts
Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan, and Angad Pratap are flight instructors and test pilots with more than 3000 hours of flying experience.
Shubhanshu Shukla has more than 2000 hours of flight experience as a fighter combat leader and test pilot.
The vehicle
The missions will be launched using ISRO’s Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3), a heavy lift launcher known for its reliability.
All launch vehicle systems will be re-configured to meet human rating requirements such as the addition of the Crew Escape System (CES) powered by a set of quick-acting, high-burn rate solid motors.
The spacecraft (or Orbital Module) is composed of the Crew Module and the Service Module.
The Crew Module is where the crew will live and work. It is a pressurized habitable space with an Earth-like environment, crew interfaces, life support systems, and deceleration systems. (parachutes).
The Service Module is an unpressurized structure providing support to the Crew Module with its thermal system, propulsion system, power systems, and avionics systems.
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