NEW DELHI: India's maiden human-space flight "H1-Gaganyaan" will take off for explorations related to space fields in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to the government.
Informing this in the Parliament through a written reply, Union minister of Atomic energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh on Wednesday said, as part of the safety of the crew, two uncrewed flights are scheduled before the Gaganyaan-1 mission to demonstrate the performance of the crew escape system and parachute-based deceleration system for different flight conditions.
"The astronaut designates for human space flight missions have been identified. They are undergoing their mission-related training at Bengaluru", the minister said.
He also informed the House that the first semester of astronaut-designate training has been completed wherein they were trained with various course modules and theoretical basics, specie medicines, launch vehicles and spacecraft systems.
The minister elaborated that regular physical fitness sessions and aeromedical knowledge, flying practices and other mission-specific training are being imparted to the astronaut designates.
"The first uncrewed flight of the Gaganyaan programme-G1 mission is aimed at validating the performance of human-rated launch vehicle, orbital module propulsion system, mission management, communication system and recovery operations," the minister informed the House. He added that the G1 mission will carry a humanoid as a payload.