Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 27 announced the names of the four astronauts, who would fly to low-Earth orbit as part of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Gaganyaan Mission.
- Gaganyaan is the first crewed Indian space mission.
- These astronauts are; Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, (Group Captain) Angad Prathap, Ajit Krishnan, and Shubanshu Shukla.
- The Gaganyaan missions include both manned and unmanned missions. The first unmanned Gaganyaan-1 mission will be a test flight to check the technology readiness for the final mission.
- The manned mission will fly a three-membered crew into a low earth orbit at an altitude of 400 km for a period of three days.
- ISRO will use its LVM3 rocket for all of the Gaganyaan missions. LVM3 (GSLV-MkIII) is ISRO’s most powerful launch vehicle.
- The rocket consists of liquid stage, solid stage, and cryogenic stage.
- On February 14, ISRO performed final tests on the rocket’s cryogenic engine, known as CE20. It will power LVM3 during the cryogenic stage of the lift-off. The engine successfully passed and was certified for missions that would transport humans into space.
