Gaganyaan: First uncrewed spaceflight mission likely this month

New Delhi: Over the next three weeks, India is targeting to send its first uncrewed or experimental mission as part of Gaganyaan – which envisages a demonstration of ISRO’s human spaceflight capability – while a crewed spaceflight mission is targeted for October-December of 2026, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

Sharing details of the Stipulated Timeline for the Gaganyaan Mission in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said, “The first uncrewed (experimental) mission is targeted by the end of 2024. Further, uncrewed missions are targeted for Q3 of 2025 and Q1 of 2026 respectively.”

Replying to a question by Rajeev Shukla of the Congress, MoS Singh said for the first uncrewed mission, solid and liquid Propulsion Stages of human-rated launch vehicles were ready for flight integration. “C32 Cryogenic stage is nearing completion. Crew Module and Service Module structure realisation completed. Flight integration activities are in progress,” he said.

The MoS identified a shortage of semiconductor components as one of the major challenges associated with the project.

“Major challenges and risks are related to the seamless supply of raw materials, semiconductor components and timely deliveries of hardware from industries,” said MoS Singh.

Sharing the details of steps taken to counter the challenges, the MoS said, “Multiple sources have been identified for the supply of critical elements for the mission. The criticalities with regards to the timely delivery of subsystems are monitored closely for the intervention of higher management.”

He said the Gaganyaan Industry Meet was also organised to sensitise industries about the quality aspects required for human space missions and timely delivery of hardware.

Elaborating on the crew, he said two out of three semesters of the training programme for Gaganyatris has been completed and Independent Training Simulator and Static Mockup Simulators have been realised.

Elaborating on other planned missions involving humans, MoS Singh said, “The Government has recently announced an expanded vision for Space Programme wherein Bharatiya Antariksha Station by 2035 and Indian Moon Landing by 2040 were envisioned. Future missions for Bharatiya Antariksha Station and Indian Moon Landing will also involve humans.”

IANS