Meet people behind ISRO’s Gaganyaan mission

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to launch an uncrewed flight test today marking the first step towards the Gaganyaan mission from its Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota. 

The first unmanned flight test designated as the Test Vehicle Development Flight Mission-1 (TV-D1 Flight Test), is scheduled to be launched from Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota by ISRO today at 8 a.m which has been revised to 8.45 am. But just 5 seconds before the launch, the countdown stopped. 

Meet people behind ISRO’s Gaganyaan mission

People who are working behind the flight tests and the main Gaganyaan mission include S Somnath, S Unnikrishnan Nair, and VR Lalithabika.

S Somnath is the current Chairman of ISRO, Unnikrishnan Nair is the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, and VR Lalithambika is a senior scientist working at ISRO.

ISRO Chairman, S. Somanath, is considered one of the brains behind India’s mission to the moon. He has also been credited for other missions such as for accelerating include Aditya-L1 (a mission to the sun) and Gaganyaan (a crewed mission). 

VR Lalithambika has spent three decades at ISRO and has been tasked to send a manned mission to space by 2022. She has worked on all Indian rockets Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) and indigenous space shuttle.

SRO hasn’t yet disclosed the complete list of people behind ISRO’s Gaganyaan mission. However, as the manned Gaganyaan space flight approaches, ISRO is expected to provide more information about the crew.

Gaganyaan mission

This flight test vehicle abort mission will demonstrate the performance of the Crew Escape system as part of the Gaganyaan mission. It will also test the safe landing in the Bay of Bengal after the rocket launch. 

This mission represents a significant milestone in India’s effort to demonstrate that it is possible to send humans into space. The test flight project aims to prove India’s capacity to send humans into a 400-kilometre orbit and safely bring them back to the earth with a splashdown in the Bay of Bengal Sea. 

Visuals of the Sriharikota entrance establishment show model rockets being placed at the entrance. It’s noteworthy that around 20 major tests, including 3 uncrewed missions of the Human Rated Launch Vehicle (HLVM3), are planned. 

The Gaganyaan project envisages a demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of 3 members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3-day mission and bringing them back safely to earth, by landing in Indian sea waters. This program will make India the fourth nation to launch a manned spaceflight mission after the US, Russia, and China.

(with inputs from ANI)