Gaganyaan

Why is in news? Gaganyaan to be done by end of 2023 or beginning of 2024

Minister of State for Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh has said that the first trial for Gaganyaan, India’s maiden human space mission, will be done by the end of 2023 or at the beginning of 2024.

He said the first test flight will be followed by sending a female-looking humanoid robot - Vyom Mitra to ensure that the final flight of Gaganyaan is flawless. Dr. Jitendra Singh said, on the basis of these two missions, our astronauts will go in the third mission.

Gaganyaan is significant because it is the first indigenous mission that will send Indian astronauts to space.

With the launch of Gaganyaan, India will become the fourth nation in the world to launch a Human Spaceflight Mission after the US, Russia, and China.

Gaganyaan is a mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to send a three-member crew to space for a period of five to seven days.

The space mission was first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018 in his independence day address to the nation.

The Gaganyaan spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit (LEO) of 300-400 kilometres. GSLV Mk III, also called the LVM-3 (Launch Vehicle Mark-3,) the three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle, will be used to launch Gaganyaan as it has the necessary payload capability.

ISRO is developing the spacecraft and Russia is helping in the training of the astronauts.