Four Navaschars are set to travel into space by riding the Gaganyaan as representatives of India. Indian Air Force officers, Group Captain Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Angad Pratap, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan and Group Captain Subhanshu Shukla have been selected for this mission. These officers have been trained to deal with any adverse situation, and are undergoing specialized training at the Air Force’s Navaschar Center in Bangalore.
In 2019, Indian Space Research Center (ISRO) signed an MoU with Glavcosmos, a subsidiary of the Russian space research agency Roscosmos. The four astronauts were then trained at Russia’s Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center alongside other potential astronauts, from February 2020 to March 2021.
ISRO sent an unmanned space vehicle experimentally last October, as part of the plan to send humans into the 400 km orbit of space. The aim is to look into how to safely bring astronauts back to earth after sending them into space. If the Gaganyaan launch is successful, ISRO will send a robot called ‘Byommitra’ into space in the second phase. If that campaign is successful, the rush to send humans into space will begin in 2024-25. Gaganyaan will return with four astronauts after three days in space.
ISRO has successfully tested Gaganyaan’s CE20 cryogenic engine, which will power the astronauts in a special stage of the space shuttle. The engine will be used during the cryogenic phase when the ambient temperature is extremely low. Launch vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3) is the vehicle that will send ISRO’s astronauts on the Gaganyaan mission. Since last year, ISRO has been testing several instruments of Gaganyaan.
This is an exciting milestone for India’s space program! Looking forward to the achievements and contributions of these Indian astronauts on their journey into space.