Gaganyaan run-up picks pace, eyeing key milestones before year-end

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is leading extensive preparatory work ahead of its human spaceflight programme, Gaganyaan, and is eyeing critical milestones before the end of the year.

M Sankaran, Director, U R Rao Satellite Centre, Isro, said here on Thursday that the mission run-up has been active though the progress made is not in public domain.

“It is a very intense mission that involves many tests. You can expect something newsworthy sometime by the end of the year,” he told reporters.

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Sankaran said Gaganyaan will be the take-off point for more human spaceflight missions, for which India has initiated capacity-building activities and knowledge acquisition.

Isro is also gearing up for the launch of its lunar mission, Chandrayaan 3, in July, Sankaran said. “The spacecraft has arrived at the launch base (Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota). The preparations are on and it could be launched sometime in July,” he said.

Mars Rover replica

Sankaran inaugurated a full-scale replica of NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity, to be exhibited at the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum here.

The full-scale model of Opportunity, built by students of Cornell University in the US, was initially displayed at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum. The American Centre in the US Consulate in Chennai had it displayed from November 2022 to March 2023.

Opportunity was planned as a 90-day mission but after its 2004 landing, the rover explored Mars for almost 15 years. Its major discoveries included the evidence that at least one area of the red planet stayed wet for an extended period.

Marisa Lago, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, US Department of Commerce, said the governments in India and the US recognised the significance of an innovative and competitive space sector that is also driven by collaborations with the private industry.

Judith Ravin, US Consul General, Chennai, underscored partnerships between India and the US in the space sector that included NISAR (NASA Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar), one of NASA’s largest bilateral projects, being developed at USD 1.5 billion.