ISRO First Manned Mission To Low Earth Orbit Scheduled For December 2021

ISRO Gaganyaan mission has been the talk of the town for a while now. As the first mission to send Indian astronauts to space, the Gaganyaan mission has been in development for more than a year. The recent International Space Conference on 'Ushering the New Era for Indian Space Sector' has given us more information regarding the astronaut mission.

ISRO Gaganyaan Mission Launch

"ISRO seeks national and international collaborations for working in some of the areas for the Gaganyaan program," said Dr. Unnikrishnan Nair S, Director of Human Space Flight Centre at the conference.

Of course, there are many factors to bear in mind regarding the Gaganyaan mission. There are three stages before the astronauts will liftoff to the low-Earth orbit. According to the current schedule, the first unmanned flight is scheduled to take place in December 2020; the second unmanned test flight in June 2021, and the final manned mission to liftoff in December 2021.

However, due to the pandemic and the consecutive lockdown, there could be a delay. On the other hand, central minister Dr. Jitendra Singh said that there won't be any delay despite the lockdown. It remains to see if the schedule will alter or not. Presently, four hand-picked Indian Air Force pilots are undergoing astronaut training in Russia.

ISRO Gaganyaan Mission: What To Expect

The ISRO Gaganyaan mission is one of the most crucial and ambitious missions undertaken by the premier space agency. For one, ISRO is looking at multiple technological experiments and spinoffs. This is expected to cover diverse areas including medicine, industrial safety, pollution, waste management, water and food resource management, and so on.

There are multiple departments involved in the ISRO Gaganyaan mission - just like all of ISRO missions. However, the Gaganyaan mission is quite unique as we see a lot of foreign collaborations as well. For instance, we see collaboration with Russia and France, particularly for this mission. The private partnership has also boosted via the Gaganyaan mission.