Gaganyaan’s first uncrewed mission to be launched in last quarter of 2025: ISRO Chief V Narayanan
Narayanan said the Axiom-4 mission, which is carrying Indian astronaut Subhranshu Shukla to ISS, is expected to be launched in the first week of June
By R Anil Kumar
Bengaluru. Gaganyaan programme to get going in the last quarter of 2025,” ISRO Chairman V Narayanan, said.
The first uncrewed mission of the Gaganyaan programme would be launched in the last quarter of this year, chairman of the India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) V Narayanan said.
Gaganyaan, India’s first attempt to put humans into space, involves three uncrewed missions before the astronauts are flown to an orbit of 400 km for one to three days.
The crewed mission is expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2027, Narayanan said.
Narayanan added that the Axiom-4 mission from the United States, which is carrying Indian astronaut Subhranshu Shukla to the International Space Station (ISS), is expected to be launched in the first week of June.
The experience gained from the Axiom-4 mission, including from the experiments performed onboard, would feed into the preparations for the Gaganyaan programme, he said.
Gaganyaan Crewed mission to happen in the ‘first quarter of 2027’, says ISRO chief
The crewed mission was initially proposed for 2022 but kept being pushed to subsequent years, with early 2027 being the latest timeline
ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan addresses a press conference on updates on the Gaganyaan Programme.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) expects the Gaganyaan mission to launch Indian astronauts into space will only take place in the “first quarter of 2027”, V. Narayanan, Chairman, ISRO, said at a press conference.
While it will be preceded by three test launches — two uncrewed and one with a robot — this is the latest extension of the launch date, in this most anticipated of ISRO’s missions.
The crewed mission was initially proposed for 2022 but kept being pushed to subsequent years, with early 2027 being the latest timeline.
Minister for Space Jitendra Singh and Mr. Narayanan said the delays had been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic; the tests required to train astronauts; extra test flights of the launch vehicle; and a revamped Gaganyaan programme under which eight missions, both crewed and uncrewed, would be executed till 2028.
“There are thousands of components and at least 10 lakh lines of code that need to be written for ensuring that the crew in the launch vehicle is safe, can escape in case of an emergency, and they can be brought back safely to Earth after the mission is completed,” Mr. Narayanan said, adding, “About 10,000 people working for four-five years have to be credited with the progress made so far.”
Mr. Narayanan also said the Axiom-4 private space mission to carry Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla to the International Space Station was scheduled for the first week of June. Officially, this launch, according to Axiom, is scheduled for May 29. India has paid ₹550 crore to Axiom for taking the first Indian astronaut to space after Rakesh Sharma’s journey of 1984.
“This mission will allow astronaut Shukla to conduct several missions as well as gain extremely valuable experience, which will be useful to us,” Mr. Narayanan said.
For the first uncrewed mission expected later this year, with a robot called Vyom-mitra on board, all propulsion systems for the human-rated launch vehicle are ready, and about 90% of the necessary infrastructure and tests are also ready.
Some of the tests from the Gaganyaan mission will also feed into the development of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station, expected in 2035.
The recent success of the space docking experiment (Spadex), in early January, where two satellites moving at high speeds were ‘docked’ or conjoined autonomously, was critical to future missions, including the development of the five-module Bharatiya Antariksh Space Station.
In 2028, ISRO expects to employ docking technology as a ‘space docking’ experiment to the International Space Station. This will be followed by sending the first of the five modules by 2028. “Once it’s successful, we will go ahead with the rest of the modules,” Mr. Narayanan said.
The Spadex experiment met all its objectives with only half the fuel originally supplied, and therefore could be used for “several more experiments”.
“The recently conducted Spadex circumnavigation experiment was one such with a variety of uses such as satellite repair and strategic applications,” Mr. Narayanan said. Docking was also necessary for the Chandrayaan-4 mission, which hopes to bring back lunar material, as well as India’s planned manned mission to the moon in 2040.
