In New Delhi, India is on the verge of conducting a crucial test for itsambitious crewed space endeavor, Gaganyaan, possibly within the comingmonth, according to R. Hutton, the project director of the mission, whoinformed Reuters.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is presently training fourastronauts and has intentions to expand this group as part of its broaderobjectives for future manned missions, Hutton explained.
The primary goal of the Gaganyaan mission is to create a space capsulesuitable for human habitation, designed to carry a crew of three on athree-day journey into an orbit approximately 400 km (250 miles) aboveEarth, eventually returning them safely via a planned splashdown in theIndian Ocean.
Following the completion of Gaganyaan, ISRO has expressed its intent toexplore strategies for maintaining a continuous human presence in space.The team is focusing on testing the crew escape system, which can beemployed in emergency astronaut ejections, as a priority before proceedingwith a series of other examinations leading up to the final launch phase,all in the name of ensuring utmost safety.
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Hutton emphasized, “Safety is the foremost consideration.” An allocation ofaround 90.23 billion Indian rupees ($1.1 billion) has been designated forthis mission, following ISRO’s landmark achievement of landing itsChandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the lunar south pole.
While an exact launch date has not been disclosed, the mission isanticipated to take off from Sriharikota, the nation’s primary spaceport,prior to the year 2024. The space agency has previously reported successfultests at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre pertaining to systems responsiblefor stabilizing the crew module and safely reducing its velocity duringre-entry.
