India plans to conduct a key test of its ambitious manned space mission Gaganyaan as early as next month, mission program director R Hutton told Reuters.
Hutton said the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is currently training four astronauts and hopes to expand the team to enable more manned missions in the future.
The purpose of the Gaganyanan mission is to develop a habitable space capsule that will carry three astronauts into a 400-kilometer (250-mile) orbit for three days before splashing back to safety in the Indian Ocean as planned zone.
ISRO said that once Gaganyaan is built, it will explore ways to achieve sustained human presence in space.
Hutton said the team’s goal was to test its crew escape system, which could be used to eject astronauts in an emergency, and then conduct a series of other tests before the final launch phase, adding: “Safety is what we need to ensure the most important thing”.
Regarding Rs. Following the space agency’s historic landing of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft at the south pole of the moon, $90.23 billion has been allocated for the mission.
Although a specific timetable has not been announced, the mission is expected to launch from the country’s main space launch site at Sriharikota by 2024.
The space agency had previously said its Vikram Sarabhai Space Center had successfully tested a system for stabilizing the crew capsule and safely reducing its speed during re-entry.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
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