India’s first human space flight to be launched in 2024 

Last year in December, Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology together with the Department of Atomic Energy and Space announced the upcoming launch of India’s maiden Human Space Mission called Gaganyaan in 2023. Prior to that, during his 2018 Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had unveiled India’s targeted take-off of this space odyssey with a human (an astronaut from India) passenger on board. But now, it looks like the crewed Gaganyaan H1 mission will be delayed and has a new launch period, the fourth quarter of 2024.  

This latest development comes following the postponed launch of two test vehicle missions that are planned ahead of the H1 mission. These will examine the performance of the crew’s escape system, their optimum safety and parachute-based deceleration system when exposed to different flight conditions. As known so far, the uncrewed G1 mission is targeted for the end of 2023 launch, which will be followed by the second uncrewed G2 mission all set for take-off in the second quarter of 2024. Interestingly, both G1 and G2 will carry humanoids as payload for better test performance.  

The Gaganyaan mission of ISRO aims at a human spaceflight demonstration by sending a three-member crew to the Lower Earth Orbit of 400 kilometres for a three-day period and get them back to Earth safely, by landing on the Indian Ocean.  

As for the pre-requisites of the mission are concerned, they include development of human-rated launch vehicle for carrying crew safely to space and back, life-support system to provide an earth-like-environment on space, and most importantly upgrading crew management with respect to training, recovery and rehabilitation.  

Currently, the astronauts who have been hand-picked for the human space flight mission are undergoing mission-specific training at Bengaluru such as – regular physical fitness sessions, aeromedical training, flying practice and so on. The good news is that corresponding evaluation and assessment have already been accomplished and the crew is currently in their second semester of training.  

For those unaware, apart from ISRO, there are several stakeholders for the Gaganyaan mission including several Indian industries, academic and research institutions as well as international agencies.  

Through this upcoming mission, India will become only the fourth nation in the world to launch a human spaceflight mission, following in the footsteps of the world powers USA, Russia and China.