Chandrayaan 3 on track, India set for Gaganyaan trials from September

Aditi Tandon

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New Delhi, August 21

Chandrayaan 3 on track, India is all set to launch its next ambitious Mission, Gaganyaan, with preparations in advanced stages for precursor trials starting in September this year.

There will be two preliminary missions before the actual human mission goes up to space.

Ahead of the human spaceflight, scheduled for the second half of 2024, top scientists are working on an unmanned mission in September this year and later a mission mimicking humans through a robot early next year. The female robot has been named Vayumitra.

Gaganyaan project envisages demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of three members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3 days mission and bring them back safely to earth, by landing in Indian sea waters.

Precursor unmanned missions will prove the safety and reliability of all systems before humans are sent into space.

“The challenge is not just to send humans to space but to also bring them back safely. Therefore very thoughtfully two preliminary Gaganyaan missions will be undertaken before the final human mission in 2024. The idea is to ensure that the entire mechanism is in perfection to ensure safety,” MInister for Science, Technology and Space Jitendra Singh said today, exuding confidence in the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan 3 on the south polar region of the moon on August 23.

“We have learnt from past mistakes,” Singh said, referring to Chandrayaan 2 which had missed the landing on the moon by a whisker.

On Gaganyaan, the minister said preparations were underway to try to replicate the human mission. “The first unmanned mission has been planned for September this year. It will go for a few hours. Once this succeeds, a second trial mission mimicking a human through a robot will go. It will be a female robot named Vayumitra. It will conduct the same activities as a human, and will be rescued upon return. Once we are confident in these two trial missions, a human spaceflight mission will ensue in the second half of 2024,” the minister said, adding that not just India, “the whole world is watching Chandrayaan 3 Mission which will send back critical inputs for space scientists including for NASA.”

“We expect the Chandrayaan to last beyond its estimated life just as Mangalyaan did,” Singh said.