NEW DELHI: India’s Gaganyaan mission will not be a ‘one-off’ mission. Four Indian Air Force pilots, already selected, have been undergoing extensive training for the mission, a senior official of the Indian Space Research Organisation said on Saturday. Addressing the ‘Be Inspired: Festival of Ideas’ event here, Imtiaz Ali Khan, Director of ISRO’s Directorate of Human Spaceflight Programme, said the follow-on space missions of Gaganyaan may include civilians such as doctors and scientists. He said age was not a very strict criteria for undertaking space missions .
Ali further added that “the first human spaceflight, planned for launch late next year (2024), four Indian Air Force pilots have been selected and were undergoing extensive training for the mission. ’Gaganyaan will not be a one-off mission as the government has given approval for a sustained human spaceflight (HSF) programme,’ Ali said, adding that the future missions will be decided after ISRO demonstrates its capabilities by carrying out India’s first successful human spaceflight.
He said the kind of benefit one expected from the HSF programme requires a longer stay in microgravity and there was a need to develop new technologies such as rendezvous, docking among others.He said the selection process was done keeping the space missions requirements in the forefront that required the candidates to be agile, fit, able to understand procedures and work well on simulators during the training sessions.
ISRO plans to send at least two astronauts into a low-earth orbit in 2024 after assessing the outcome of the two orbital test flights. Last week, ISRO completed the final long-duration hot test of the human-rated L110-G Vikas engine, a major achievement.
‘First human spaceflight by late next year’
Ali further added that “the first human spaceflight, planned for launch late next year (2024), four IAF pilots have been selected and were undergoing extensive training for the mission. ’Gaganyaan will not be a one-off mission as the government has given approval, ISRO said