Gaganyaan; unmanned flight in December; human mission to be accompanied by humanoid Vyommitra and fruit flies

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The first unmanned test flight of India's manned space mission Gaganyaan will take place in December. Preparations are in the final stages.

The Gaganyaan human mission is scheduled for the end of next year. Prior to that, two unmanned test flights will be carried out. The Gaganyaan spacecraft itself will fly in December. A robot named Vyommitra will accompany the second unmanned Gaganyaan mission. Indian astronauts will board the third flight.

Gaganyaan will be launched in December on ISRO's most powerful rocket, LVM-3. The crew module of the test spacecraft is being integrated at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram and the service module is being integrated at the UR Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru. Next month, the spacecraft will be delivered to the Satish Dhawan Centre in Sriharikota. The LVM3 rocket is also in the integration phase at Sriharikota.

Vyommitra and fruit flies in Gaganyaan

The Gaganyaan human mission will be accompanied by Indian astronauts along with a humanoid called Vyommitra and fruit flies from the Karnataka Dharwad Agricultural University. This is to study the changes that occur in fruit flies in areas where there is no gravity. This information will be useful for maintaining the health of astronauts in future missions. The aim of the studies is also to address health issues such as the erosion of the bones of astronauts and kidney stones. The kit was developed after a two-year-long research at a cost of Rs 78 lakh. The hardware of the kit was prepared by the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology at Valiyamala in Thiruvananthapuram. The kit consists of 20 male and female fruit flies and will have a breeding facility, wheat crumbs, food mixed with jaggery and sodium oxalate.

Shubhanshu to fly first

Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla, one of the four Gaganyaan passengers, arrived in the UNITED States to fly into space before the Gaganyaan leaves. Shubhanshu Shukla, who will be staying for two weeks at NASA's International Space Station, will have his first experience in space travel. The trip is next month. Shubhanshu will be trained under the leadership of Captain Peggy Whitson of SpaceX. Shubhanshu's replacement Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair is also in the training. Shubhanshu will be on board the Dragon spacecraft, which will be launched on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on NASA's Axium 4 mission. It will be launched from Florida.

Gaganyaan mission

The Gaganyaan mission will put astronauts in orbit at a distance of 400 km from earth and return them after three days. The spacecraft will land back in the Bay of Bengal after orbiting the Earth 16 times.