By R Anil Kumar
Bengaluru, Sep 9, 2026. Group Captain Angad Pratap said Gaganyaan is a major milestone that will lay the foundation for India’s larger human spaceflight ambitions, including the Bharatiya Antariksha Station, and make India the fourth country with this capability.
Group Captain and astronaut Angad Pratap on Wednesday, September 9, said Gaganyaan will lay the foundation for India’s larger human spaceflight ambitions, including the Bharatiya Antariksha Station, stressing that the country’s ultimate aim should be to make space accessible to everyone and push the boundaries of knowledge for humanity.
Speaking at the Space Expo session ‘The Next Chapter of Space: A Conversation on Exploration, Science and Innovation’, Pratap said Gaganyaan is about developing India’s independent capability to send humans into space and described it as a major technological milestone.
Gaganyaan: A Major Technological Milestone
“Gaganyaan is about acquiring the capability to launch a human to space domestically, here in India. It’s a huge capability, and I am very, very eagerly waiting for that day to happen. Because it is a very critical piece of what I would call apex technology, which has 16 to 20 very niche sets of technologies under it. So, once you reach that milestone, it is a huge milestone for any country in the world, and we are going to be the fourth country in the world to do that, all by ourselves,” he said.
Beyond Gaganyaan: The Bharatiya Antariksha Station
However, he said India’s human spaceflight ambitions should not be limited to Gaganyaan, pointing to the Bharatiya Antariksha Station as an important part of the country’s long-term plans. “Notwithstanding that, I wouldn’t really restrict myself to Gaganyaan, because in India people currently associate human spaceflight only with Gaganyaan. The Bharatiya Antariksha Station is still in the shadows. So Gaganyaan is nothing but human spaceflight,” Pratap said.
Expanding Knowledge Beyond Earth
He said human spaceflight would allow scientists to expand knowledge beyond what can be learnt by observing phenomena on Earth. “And for those from a physics background, you know about the physics cube. All of the learning we have had, whether in the biological domain or the engineering domain, we have learned primarily by observing things here on Earth. There is much, much more to learn out there, beyond Earth, for which you have to send your scientists. You have to send humans of all specialisations — who are probably sitting right here — all the way up there,” he added.
Pratap said Gaganyaan should therefore be viewed as a foundation for much larger human spaceflight programmes. “So Gaganyaan may sound like just one single capability or a technology demonstrator where we just send one person, for one orbit maybe, and bring them back. But that will lay the foundation for much bigger things that I have already talked about, and Tom has already talked about,” he said.
Public-Private Collaboration Essential
He also stressed the need for greater collaboration between the government and private sectors in India’s space programme. “We need to make space accessible to everyone. A lot of technology will cross over between the private sector and the government sector — it’s a symbiotic relationship, and both will gain from each other. But the ultimate aim is to push the boundaries of knowledge for humanity as a whole,” he added.
Group Captain Angad Pratap, a Gaganyaan astronaut, highlights the inherent delays in human spaceflight programmes and stresses the importance of patience and meticulous preparation for India’s ambitious mission.
Key Points
- Gaganyaan astronaut Group Captain Angad Pratap acknowledges that delays are a natural part of developing prototype human spaceflight programmes.
- Pratap stresses the importance of patience and thorough ground work to ensure the mission’s positive and successful outcome.
- Astronauts are actively involved in the design process, contributing their operational knowledge to the human-machine interface architecture.
- ISRO plans to conduct three uncrewed missions before the crewed Gaganyaan launch, which is now targeted for 2027.
- The Gaganyaan mission aims to send a three-member crew on a three-day space mission and ensure their safe return to Earth.
Group Captain Angad Pratap, one of the astronauts selected for the Gaganyaan mission, on Wednesday said delays were part of developing a human spaceflight programme and should be taken with a “pinch of salt”, stressing that patience was needed to ensure its eventual success. He said the astronauts were continuing to train and prepare for the Gaganyaan mission according to the timelines prescribed by ISRO headquarters.
“When you become an astronaut, you have to start living with this fact that there are going to be delays in prototype programmes, especially. We did not join as astronauts thinking that everything was foreknown-that the vehicle is ready, the rocket is ready, you come, this is the date…” he told reporters here on the sidelines of the ninth edition of the Bengaluru Space Expo 2026.
Understanding Delays In Space Missions
Pratap, a fighter pilot with the Indian Air Force, pointed out that when American or Russian astronauts join a programme, they do so with the expectation of getting an assured flight within a certain finite period. “But when it came to us, we were joining a prototype programme not only for the flight but to build that programme from whatever small contribution we can make. We are continuing to make that contribution,” he said.
Responding to queries on the delay in the mission, the astronaut stressed that the programme was not just about the flight, as a substantial amount of work also had to be completed on the ground. “…It might be delayed by a few months or, let’s say, one or two years. But once it happens, it has to be positively successful, and that’s why all of us should take this delay with a pinch of salt, because that is the starting point. You don’t want to fail at the starting point itself. The programme will probably just stop, for all we know. We don’t want that to happen,” he said.
The Importance of Patience And Success
Noting that some of the brightest minds in the country were working on the mission, he urged people to trust them. “Let’s be patient. Let it happen at its own pace,” he said.
On his role in the mission, the Group Captain said he was involved in the design process for the front-end architecture of the human-machine interface. “But for that, I need to utilise the operational flow of events, my aviation knowledge, and everything. I sit with the designers. I tell them what is to be designed and how. So, in a way, I work on the operational requirement sets,” he said.
Astronauts’ Role in Mission Design
He explained that he made replicas of how the front-end architecture should look while taking into account the hardware realities involved. “So, it’s a very, very niche topic. No one person can stake a claim that I have designed this,” Pratap said.
He noted that there was a plan to select six more test pilots and four people from non-aviation backgrounds. “So, I was an experimental test pilot. After I was selected, I learned a lot about engineering and medicine. If a doctor is selected, he or she will have to learn about aviation and engineering. Similarly, an engineer will have to learn about medicine and aviation.”
Gaganyaan Mission Timeline and Objectives
In his address following the successful launch of EOS-05, ISRO Chairman V Narayanan said activities were underway “very vigorously and systematically” for the launch of the uncrewed mission during the current calendar year. The Gaganyaan mission is India’s first human spaceflight programme currently under development. It aims to send a three-member crew on a three-day mission to space and bring them back safely to Earth. “Gaganyaan programme is planned in 2027. Before that, three uncrewed missions are planned. We are working towards the first uncrewed mission,” Narayanan had told reporters.
