BENGALURU: ISRO chairman V Narayanan, who is also the secretary at the Union Department of Space (DoS), said that ISRO’s Gaganyaan mission is on track for its first launch in the third quarter of 2027, with over 8,000 ground tests having been conducted already.
Narayanan was speaking as the keynote lectu-rer at the 17th annual Air Chief Marshal LM Katre Memorial Lecture, organised by the Air Force Associat-ion (Karnataka) at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Management Academy. In his speech on “Indian Space Programme: The Challenges and Way Forward”, he stressed ISRO’s enduring partnership with HAL, with-out which, according to him, the former organisation would not have any launch vehicles, and would not be able to conduct any satellite programmes.
“Since its inception, 4,020 sounding rockets have been launched, 105 launch vehicle missions have been conducted, and 135 satellite missions have been accom-plished.
The number of missions conducted doubled in the 2015-2026 time period as compared to the 2006-2015 time period,” said Narayanan, adding that 463 satellites (399 foreign) have been launched by ISRO in the last decade. He also said that in the 2025-2026 financial year, ISRO had undertaken over 60 major tests or demonstrations.
“We are currently working on the first non-crew mission,” he added. Air Marshal HB Rajaram (retired), in his speech, highlighted the contributions of Katre towards the growth of Indian aviation during his 42-year-long career spanning the Indian Air Force and HAL.