- The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on August 28, 2018 unveiled India’s Gaganyaan programme for manned space flight before 2022 as announced by the Prime Minister on the 72nd Independence Day.
- The programme will make India the fourth nation in the world to launch a Human Spaceflight Mission. So far, only the USA, Russia and China have launched human spaceflight missions.
- According to the ISRO Chairman K. Sivan, the manned mission to space having 3 crew members will be in space for 5-7 days.
- After the take off, the manned flight will reach the orbit in 16 minutes.
- The crew, while coming back to the Earth, could land in the Arabian Sea off the Gujarat coast or in the Bay of Bengal or even on land.
- The mission may be executed six months before India completes its 75th Independence Day with the help of GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle.
- The spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km and the total programme cost is expected to be less than Rs 10,000 crores.
- Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh said the mission is much cheaper in comparison to other man missions sent to space.
- The crew will be selected by the Indian Air Force and ISRO jointly after which they will undergo training for two to three years.
- ISRO has developed some critical technologies like re-entry mission capability, crew escape system, crew module configuration, thermal protection system, deceleration and floatation system, sub-systems of life support system etc. required for this programme.
- Some of above technologies have been demonstrated successfully through the Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-2007), Crew module Atmospheric Reentry Experiment (CARE-2014) and Pad Abort Test (2018). These technologies will enable ISRO in accomplishing the programme objectives in a short span of 4 years.
- The objectives of the Mission as:
- Enhancement of science and technology levels in the country
- A national project involving several institutes, academia and industry
- Improvement of industrial growth
- Inspiring youth
- Development of technology for social benefits
- Improving international collaboration
