ISRO Set to Start Work on Gaganyaan

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ISRO has announced that it has began preparations for the Gaganyaan mission. The space agency has announced that a management structure has been formed with a task to realise the mission.

About Gaganyaan

It is a mission to send three astronauts to space on a maiden human space flight.
An indigenous space capsule to carry the astronauts is being developed by ISRO.
It will be launched from GSLV MkIII launch vehicle.
The mission is expected to be launched by 2022.
Total budget allocated for the mission is Rs. 9023 crore.
Astronauts will be selected from the pilots of Indian Air Force.
For advanced training of the astronauts, ISRO has signed an agreement with Russia.
As per the mission objectives, astronauts will be placed in an orbit at a distance of 400 Km from surface of the Earth. They will continue to remain in space for seven days.
For the project, ISRO is set to deploy 861 personnel with an additional 700 workers for the mission.
For the mission, a new centre named Human Space Flight Centre is set up in Bengaluru.
Unnikrishnan Nair will be the director of the centre and of the mission.
Already ISRO had conducted re-entry test and pad abort test with the prototype crew capsule.

About GSLV Mk III

It is the heavy lifter of ISRO.
The launch vehicle has three stages with a cryogenic upper stage.
It has the capacity to put a payload weighting 4 tons in the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) or a 10 ton payload in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
It has two strap-ons named Vikas liquid engines and a core liquid booster named S-200.
The first successful flight of GSLV Mk III was in 2017. It launched GSAT-19 satellite to GTO.

Significance of the Mission

Only a few nations have the capability to launch astronauts to space. When successful, India will join the elite group.
The success of the mission will prove to the world the technological capabilities of the country.
It has the potential to imbibe scientific temper in the youth of the country.
Missions like this will pave the way for space travel which is the next frontier for human inquisitiveness.