Thiruvananthapuram: Prime Minister Narendra Modi revealed the names of the four ‘astronaut designates’ to embark on India’s historic inaugural Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission, planned for 2025, during his visit to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre here on Tuesday.
The four chosen Indian Air Force pilots are Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Prathp and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla. They were trained at Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia.
PM Modi also bestowed ‘astronaut wings’ to the astronaut-designates on this occasion.
The Prime Minister said that Gaganyaan is going to take India’s space sector to a new heights. “A while ago, the country saw 4 Gaganyaan travellers. They are not just 4 names or 4 human beings, they are the four powers that are going to take the aspirations of 140 crore Indians to space. An Indian is going to space, after 40 years. This time, the time is ours, the countdown is ours and the rocket is also ours…”
“I am happy that today I got the opportunity to meet these astronauts and present them in front of the country. I want to congratulate them on behalf of the entire country…You are the pride of today’s India,” he said.
He further said that the India of the 21st century has surprised the world with its potential. “In the last 10 years, we have launched about 400 satellites, whereas 10 years before that, only 33 satellites were launched…”
PM Modi addd that India will have its own space station in space by 2035 and it will help to study the unknown expanses of space. “In this period of Amrit Kaal, an Indian astronaut will land on the surface of the moon on our own rocket.”
According to ISRO, Gaganyaan project envisages demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching crew of three members to an orbit of 400 km for a three days mission and bring them back safely to earth, by landing in Indian sea waters. The pre-requisites for Gaganyaan mission include development of many critical technologies including human rated launch vehicle for carrying crew safely to space, Life Support System to provide an earth like environment to crew in space, crew emergency escape provision and evolving crew management aspects for training, recovery and rehabilitation of crew.
Series of Gaganyaan tests have been planned for demonstrating the Technology Preparedness Levels before the final mission. These include Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT), Pad Abort Test (PAT) and Test Vehicle (TV) flights.
LVM3 rocket has been identified as the launch vehicle for Gaganyaan mission in which human safety is of paramount importance.
