INVC NEWS
Thiruvananthapuram : Prime Minister Narendra Modi today honored four Indians who went on India’s first manned mission to space. The astronauts who went to space include Group Captain Prashant Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Pratap and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla. The Prime Minister arrived in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on Tuesday, where he visited the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center and reviewed the preparations for India’s first manned space mission Gaganyaan. During this, ISRO chief S Somnath, Kerala CM P Vijayan and Governor Arif Mohammad Khan were also present.
What is Gaganyaan Mission?
Gaganyaan is the country’s first human space flight mission, under which four astronauts will be sent to space. This mission can be sent by the end of this year or the beginning of 2025. The target is to send an unmanned test flight to space in 2024, in which a Vyomamitra robot will be sent. The objective of the Gaganyaan mission is to send humans into space on a 400 km low Earth orbit for a three-day Gaganyaan mission and bring them back to Earth safely.
The Russian mission Soyuz MS-10 mission was launched on 11 October 2018. In this mission, Russian agency Roscosmos sent its member Alexei Ovchinin and NASA sent its member Nick Hague. After take-off, Mission Control announced that a booster had failed. It was the first time in 35 years that a Russian booster failed but the crew was able to survive thanks to the launch escape system. After launching, the crew capsule was separated from the launch vehicle. This is why ISRO has learned from Russia’s experience that crew safety should be of paramount importance in manned missions.
India will be included in the special list as soon as Gaganyaan is successful.
If the Gaganyaan mission is successful, India will join an exclusive list of countries that have launched their own crewed spacecraft. At present the only countries that have achieved such a position are America, Russia and China. Captain Rakesh Sharma is the first person from India to go to space. In 1984, Rakesh Sharma stayed in space for eight days as part of a joint space mission of the Intercosmic Program of ISRO and Russia. Rakesh was a squadron leader and pilot of the Indian Air Force at that time. Kalpana Chawla was the first woman of Indian origin to go to space through the American space agency NASA. Apart from her, Sunita Williams is the second woman of Indian origin to go to space.
