BENGALURU: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman V Narayanan on Thursday said that 90 per cent of the work on India’s maiden human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, has been completed. The first of the three uncrewed missions is scheduled to be undertaken in December.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event to promote the Emerging Science, Technology and Innovation Conclave (ESTIC-2025), scheduled from November 3 to 5 in New Delhi, Narayanan stressed that the safety of astronauts was crucial for the main crewed mission, which is now scheduled for the first quarter of 2027.
“Safety of astronauts in space is crucial and thus each test is being extensively conducted… a lot of technology development has to take place – the rocket has to be human-rated, the orbital module has to be developed, and the environmental control safety system has to be developed. Then coming to the crew escape system, parachute system and then, of course, there are the human-centric products," he said.
“Three uncrewed missions have to be accomplished before going for the crewed mission and we are working towards it. In the first uncrewed mission, Vyommitra (the humanoid) is going to fly and we are working towards that to accomplish the crewed mission by the beginning of 2027," he added.
ISRO completed the first integrated air drop test for Gaganyaan at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on 24 August. This test successfully demonstrated the critical parachute-based deceleration system of the crew module for the Gaganyaan mission.
In a simulated rehearsal of the splashdown that will occur when astronauts return to Earth after the mission, a module was lifted using a helicopter to an altitude of three kilometres and released before deploying nine parachutes for a successful splashdown in the Bay of Bengal, he explained.
Narayanan further said that work on the next-generation launchers was ongoing, and the Prime Minister had set targets for a future crewed lunar mission. “We are in the conceiving phase and design phase for a lift-off mass of 75,000-80,000 kg. This will have three-stage rockets to take man to the Moon and bring them back safely,” he said, adding that work to launch the first module of Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS), India’s first space station weighing 52 tonnes, is underway and scheduled for 2028.
On India’s indigenous satellite navigation system, Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC), Narayanan said there had been some setbacks but all work was now on track. A total of seven satellites are needed to complete the constellation and facilitate the navigation satellite system. "Of this, four are in orbit and three more need to be launched. The first of the three will be launched before the end of this financial year and in the next one-and-a-half years. The remaining will be launched in a gap of six months each," he said.
Narayanan confirmed that the Central government had approved Chandrayaan-4, aimed at bringing back samples from the lunar surface. While designing activities are ongoing, approval has also been obtained for Chandrayaan-5, the Lunar Pole Exploration (Lupex) mission in collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
He also said that the US communication satellite BlueBird-6, weighing 6.5 tonnes, is likely to be launched by December 2025.
Approvals have additionally been obtained for the Venus orbital mission, and configurations have started for the Mars lander mission. To meet the increasing number of crucial missions in the coming years, ISRO is building its third launchpad in Sriharikota and a launch building complex in Kulasekarapattinam, Tuticorin.
A Rajarajan, Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), said ISRO will be launching the Communication Satellite-03 (CMS-03) on board the LVM3-M5 on 2 November.
