India’s first manned space flight – Gaganyaan – is expected to send three persons into the space for seven days and the spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km.
ISRO and Roscosmos (Russia’s federal space agency) have agreed to worked together for India’s first manned space mission Gaganyaan.
Key Points:
- India will launch its second lunar mission on January 3 next year which will land on the moon with a lander and rover.
- ISRO conducted its first pad abort‘test that was successful.
- The pad abort‘ test or Crew Escape System is an emergency escape measure that helps pull the crew away from the launch vehicle when a mission has to be aborted.
- The crew will be selected by Indian Air Force (IAF) and ISRO jointly after which they will undergo training for two-three years.
- It will conduct microgravity experiment during the mission.
- India will become fourth nation in the world after the United States, Russia and China to send astronaut into space
- Former Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot Rakesh Sharma was first Indian to travel to space.
- He was part of the Soviet Union‘s Soyuz T-11 expedition, launched in 1984, as part of the Intercosmos programme.
