Gaganyaan

artist's conception of Gaganyaan

Gaganyaan, crewed spacecraft being developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The first uncrewed test flight is planned for 2023, with a second uncrewed test flight and the first crewed flight planned for 2024. India would become the fourth nation to launch its own crewed spacecraft, after the Soviet Union (later Russia), the United States, and China.

Gaganyaan will consist of two parts, the crew module (CM) and the service module (SM), which together will form the orbital module. The CM will be shaped like a truncated cone and is designed to carry up to three astronauts. The CM will sit on top of the SM, which will contain the propulsion and power systems of the craft. Upon reentry the CM will separate from the SM and splash down in the ocean. Gaganyaan will launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on top of the Human Rated Launch Vehicle (HRLV), a version of India’s most powerful rocket, the Launch Vehicle Mark III (LVM3) that has been modified for crewed spaceflight.

Development on the Indian crewed spacecraft began in 2012. The LVM3 had its first flight in December 2014 during which it carried a CM mockup on a suborbital trajectory that ended with a successful splashdown in the Bay of Bengal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in his 2018 speech for Indian Independence Day that the first crewed flight in the Gaganyaan program would take place in 2022, the 75th anniversary of India’s independence. Four astronauts, pilots in the Indian Air Force, were selected for the program and did their first part of their training in Russia in early 2020 and the remainder at ISRO’s astronaut training facility in Bengaluru. However, the program was delayed due to the global coronavirus pandemic.

The second uncrewed test flight will carry Vyommitra, a humanoid robot with female features who can speak with ground controllers and read instrument panels in the spacecraft. The first crewed flight will carry three astronauts who will spend up to a week in low Earth orbit.