Gaganyaan: Vyommitra to fly high in new year

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Before orbiting astronauts on India's first manned mission to space in 2023, the ISRO will send 'Vyommitra', a 'lady robot' in the unmanned Gaganyaan spacecraft in 2022. This will be the space trial of the Gaganyaan spacecraft.

This trial will examine space jumps, problems with re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, return to Earth, and the operation of control systems in space. Vyommitra will go for a second space journey at the end of next year after fixing the bugs. In 2023, Gaganyaan will carry Indian astronauts to space.

Vyommitra was scheduled to enter space early this year. However, the journey was postponed for a year due to Covid. The plan was to create history by launching an Indian man into space in 2022, the 75th anniversary of independence.

India will be the fourth country to launch a man into space after the United States, Russia and China.

The spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 kilometres. The total programme cost is expected to be around Rs 10,000 crores.

Preparations so far

• Developed Vyommitra
• Liquid-fueled Vikas engine
• The astronauts completed their training at the Gagarin Center in Russia.
• Space shuttle re-entry experiments completed.
• Space shuttle design completed.
• Food prepared for the passengers.
• Made service module with space shuttle.
• A ground station will be built on Cocos Island in Australia.
• The Center for Space Studies in France will provide radiation and fire grid equipment
• The European Space Agency will make the drugs available to passengers.

Preparations left to be done

• Construction of space shuttle at HAL, Bangalore.
• The steel for this will be manufactured at the steel plant in Rourkela.
• Facility to train passengers in Bangalore
• Basic aeromedical and flying training will be provided here
• Launch trials and gravity tests must be completed.