One Gaganyaan Crew Member to Visit International Space Station in August: Union Minister

Union Minister Jitendra Singh announced that one of the four crew members selected for Gaganyaan, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) first human-crewed spaceflight, will be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) after August. The mission is a collaborative effort between ISRO and NASA, alongside Axiom Space, a private entity identified by NASA.

Singh informed the Lok Sabha on Friday, “ISRO is pursuing a joint mission with NASA to ISS, wherein one ‘Gaganyaatri’ will undertake space travel to ISS.” He added that ISRO recently signed a space flight agreement with Axiom Space for this mission. The minister’s statement came in response to a query by Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy regarding the ‘Axiom-4 Mission’ and the Gaganyaan mission.

According to NASA, this will be the fourth private astronaut mission to the ISS and is scheduled to launch no earlier than August 2024 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

In February, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced the four ‘Gaganyaatris’ – elite fighter pilots from the Indian Air Force (IAF). They are Group Captains Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan, and Angad Pratap, and Wing Commander Shubanshu Shukla. Minister Singh also mentioned that these IAF pilots are undergoing training at ISRO’s Astronauts Training Facility in Bengaluru. “They have completed two out of three semesters of their training program. Independent training simulator and static mockup simulators have been realized,” he stated.

The three-day Gaganyaan mission is expected to launch next year, marking a significant milestone in India’s space exploration endeavors.