Govt says launch of crewed space mission Gaganyaan is on cards

The launch of the crewed space mission Gaganyaan is being planned before the 75th anniversary of Indian Independence in 2022 and it will be preceded by two uncrewed missions, Government told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

New Delhi: The launch of the crewed space mission Gaganyaan is being planned before the 75th anniversary of Indian Independence in 2022 and it will be preceded by two uncrewed missions, Government told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Replying to questions, Minister of State (MoS), Personnel, PG and Pensions, Jitendra Singh said that the launch of the first uncrewed mission got delayed due to the first and second wave of Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns which resulted in supply disruptions of raw materials and delays in realization of hardware across various industries.

"Test vehicle flight for the validation of Crew Escape System performance and the 1st uncrewed mission of Gaganyaan (G1) are scheduled during the beginning of 2nd half of 2022. This will be followed by second uncrewed mission and first crewed mission," he added.

The MoS said that the Department of Space has charted out short-term and long-term plans in the areas of Space Transportation Systems, Satellite Communication & Navigation, Earth Observation, Space Sciences & Planetary Exploration, Capacity Building and Space-based applications.

He also said that from April 2016 to March 2022, 27 satellite missions and 25 launch vehicle missions were successfully accomplished. This includes the first operational flight of India's heavy-lift launch vehicle GSLV Mk-III which placed India’s second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2 into orbit; Advanced Cartography satellite, Cartosat-3; completion of NavIC constellation; launch of South Asia Satellite; launch of heaviest and most-advanced high throughput communication satellite, GSAT-11 and launch of record 104 satellites in a single PSLV flight.

"Apart from these, three technology demonstrators namely Scramjet engine, Re-Usable Launch Vehicle and test for Crew Escape System were also successfully demonstrated during this period," he stated in a written reply.

Singh also said that 286 commercial satellites from domestic as well as foreign customers and 8 student satellites from Indian universities were also launched during the same period.