New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced the names of four astronauts chosen for the Gaganyaan Mission. These astronauts are currently undergoing training for India’s first-ever human space flight mission.
The four astronauts are Prashanth Nair, Angad Prathap, Ajit Krishnan, and Shubhanshu Shukla.
Preparations for the Gaganyaan Mission, India’s inaugural human space flight program, are in full swing at different ISRO centers.
The Gaganyaan project aims to showcase the ability to send crew members into space, orbiting at 400 km for a three-day mission, and safely bringing them back to Earth by landing in the Indian sea.
ISRO has accomplished the acceptance tests for the flight engine assigned to the initial unmanned Gaganyaan (G1) mission, expected around the second quarter of 2024. This engine, powering the upper stage of the human-rated LVM3 vehicle, has a thrust capacity of 19 to 22 tonnes and a specific impulse of 442.5 seconds.
In an impressive achievement, India reached new milestones in 2023 by gently landing Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon’s South Pole and initiating Aditya-L1, the country’s inaugural solar mission.
Looking ahead, India is targeting the Gaganyaan Mission in 2024-2025, establishing the ‘Bharatiya Antariksha Station’ by 2035, and sending the first Indian to the Moon by 2040 as part of its ambitious goals.
