Bengaluru: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to send a humanoid to space in December this year as a run-up to the manned Gaganyaan Mission slated for March 2027. A robot, named Vyommitra, will be sent to space in a capsule as part of the Humanoid Mission to check all systems, ISRO chief V Narayanan said on Monday.
In Sanskrit Vyoma stands for space and Mitra means friend. Hence the name Vyommitra.
According to Narayanan, there will be two more increased missions to space in 2026. If these missions are successful, India’s first manned space mission will be launched in March 2027.
The ISRO chairman also spoke about the launch of the Synthetic Aperture Radar Satellite NISAR on July 30. This is a joint mission between NASA and ISRO. The satellite will be launched using ISRO’s GSLV-F16 rocket.
This unique satellite will scan the entire globe every 12 days, providing high-resolution, day-and-night, all-weather imagery across a 242 km swath. NISAR aims to support climate change research, disaster response, and Earth science studies.
“We are going to launch the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite through the GSLV-S16 rocket by July 30th,” the ISRO chief said.
NISAR features NASA’s L-band and ISRO’s S-band radars, enabling it to track surface changes with centimetre-level precision. The satellite will systematically map Earth’s surface, monitoring dynamic processes like glacier retreat, vegetation changes, and earthquakes. NISAR will deliver high-resolution data crucial for monitoring natural disasters, environmental degradation, and infrastructure stress.
“We will also conduct three uncrewed missions before the Gaganyaan Mission. In December, a humanoid mission will be conducted, during which a robot called Vyommitra will be sent into space. If it’s successful, then two uncrewed missions will be launched next year. After all the tests in March 2027, as PM Modi said, Gaganyaan Mission will be launched,” the ISRO chief added.