ISRO chairman S Somanath said the space agency will send an Indian astronaut to the Moon as early as 2040.
Following the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission to the Moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) now plans to send Indian astronauts to the Moon by 2040, said chairman S Somanath.
“Looking ahead, ISRO aims to take the next step in space exploration with the Gaganyaan programme, planning to launch a crew of 2 to 3 Indian astronauts into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for up to three days before safely returning them to a predefined site in Indian waters,” he said in an article for Manorama Yearbook 2024.
Four test pilots have been selected from the Indian Air Force as “Astronaut-Designates” for the Gaganyaan mission. They are going through mission-specific training at the Astronaut Training Facility in Bengaluru added Somanath.
The first Gaganyaan mission will test many critical technologies, including the human-rated LVM3 launch vehicle, an Orbital Module, which by itself consists of a Crew Module and Service Module and many life support systems. Before the actual crewed mission, two identical uncrewed missions will be conducted. This is aside from the Air Drop Test, Pad Abort Test, and Test Vehicle flights.
ISRO already completed the TV-D1 mission on October 21, 2023, where the Crew Escape System’s in-flight abort capabilities were tested. An early unpressurised version of the Crew Module used for the mission successfully separated from the launch vehicle and was safely recovered from the Bay of Bengal by the Indian Navy. According to Somanath, this test flight was crucial before the subsequent missions could be carried out. He also added that the crewed Gaganyaan mission could launch in 2025.
Somanath also cited the Aditya L1 solar exploratory mission as an important project for ISRO. The mission will study the Sun from Lagrange Point 1, complete with seven scientific instruments that were all developed indigenously. The five-year-long mission launched on September 2 this year and it will be inserted into a halo orbit around L1 in 2024.
Source:indianexpress.com