Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chief Sreedhara Panicker Somanath has said that four astronauts selected for the country's first manned space mission, Gaganyaan, are ready and now awaiting their flight.
“For the first mission we have selected four of them, and it is our endeavour to send them at least by 2025 to space and bring them back safely. Bringing them back safely is a very important element of this mission,” said Somanath while speaking at the 11th conference of Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU).
“In the coming days we will see multiple missions without man, and then ultimately the launch of an Indian into space. The astronauts are already ready. They are waiting for the flight to happen. This is one of the important missions that we are looking at,” Somanath added.
The Gaganyaan mission was first approved in December 2009, when the Indian government agreed to fund it, and was originally scheduled to launch in December 2020.
The mission consists of three parts: a launch that took place in October; a second mission that will carry a humanoid named Vyommitra into space; and a manned mission that will be sent into orbit after the second mission is successful.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos has trained four pilots from the Indian Air Force (IAF) for the Gaganyaan mission. In 2021, Roscosmos subsidiary Glavkosmos confirmed that the training of all four cosmonauts had been completed.