Why in news?

• PM Modi has announced the names of the four astronauts, who would fly to low-Earth orbit as part of ISRO’s Gaganyaan.
• The announcement came just days after ISRO said it had successfully tested the human readiness of the cryogenic engine.
  • This engine will be used on the LVM3 vehicles for all of the Gaganyaan missions.

What’s in today’s article?

• Gaganyaan
• News Summary

Gaganyaan

• Gaganyaan project envisages demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of 3 members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3 days mission and bring them back safely to earth.
  • It is part of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme (IHSP), which was initiated (2007) by the ISRO to develop the technology needed to launch crewed orbital spacecraft into low earth orbit (LEO).
• Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3/GSLV Mk3) rocket - the well proven and reliable heavy lift launcher of ISRO, is identified as the launch vehicle for Gaganyaan mission.
  • India’s heaviest rocket consists of solid stage, liquid stage and cryogenic stage.
• All systems in the LVM3 launch vehicle are re-configured to meet human rating requirements and christened Human Rated LVM3/HLVM3.
• 

News Summary: PM Modi announces 4 astronauts for Gaganyaan

• PM Modi announced the names of the four astronauts, who would fly to low-Earth orbit as part of the ISRO’s Gaganyaan — the first crewed Indian space mission.
• The selected astronauts are:
  • Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, Angad Prathap, Ajit Krishnan, and Shubanshu Shukla.
  • They are all either wing commanders or group captains with the Indian Air Force (IAF) and have extensive experience working as test pilots.

Current status of Gaganyaan missions

• The Gaganyaan missions include both manned and unmanned missions.
• The first unmanned Gaganyaan-1 mission, a test flight to check the technology readiness for the final mission, is scheduled to take off by the end of 2024.
• The manned mission, which will fly a three-membered crew into a low earth orbit at an altitude of 400 km for a period of three days, is scheduled later.
• Human rating of the launch vehicle
  • ISRO will use its LVM3 rocket for all of the Gaganyaan missions.
    • LVM3, earlier called GSLV-MkIII, is the space agency’s most powerful launch vehicle and has flown seven times and never failed.
  • For the manned Gaganyaan mission, ISRO has reconfigured all the components of LVM3 to meet human rating requirements.
  • Recently, in February 2024, the space agency performed final tests on the rocket’s cryogenic engine, known as CE20, which will power LVM3 during the cryogenic stage of the lift-off.
  • The engine successfully passed and was certified for missions that would transport humans into space.
  • The ‘Vikas’ engine to be used in the liquid stage and the solid booster, a part of the solid stage, have already qualified for the missions.
• Development of crew module and crew escape system
  • ISRO is also developing technology for the proposed human-space flight mission.
  • These include:
    • the development of life support systems to provide an earth-like environment to the crew in space,
    • crew emergency escape provision, and
    • evolving crew management aspects for training, recovery, and rehabilitation of crew.
  • In October 2023, the space agency successfully conducted the first test of a basic crew module and crew escape system (CES).
    • CES is a part of the module that ensures “the crew is taken to a safe distance in case of any emergency either at launch pad or during ascent phase.
  • The next month, the space agency began to experiment with a crew module uprighting system.
    • This system is used to ensure that the crew module, making a splashdown in the sea after a space mission, stays upright and does not get inverted in the water.
• Training of astronauts
  • The four selected astronauts have completed their generic training at Russia’s Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre.
    • Their training took place after ISRO-Glavkosmos (a subsidiary of Russian space agency Roscosmos) signed an MOU in June 2019.
  • The astronauts are currently undergoing training at ISRO’s astronaut training facility in Bengaluru.
  • One of the four astronauts is also expected to be trained by the American space agency NASA.