Training of astronauts in progress for Gaganyaan Mission

New Delhi, February 10, 2021

Union Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space Jitendra Singh today said the training of astronauts for the Gaganyaan Mission was in progress.

in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today, the Minister said an expert team was constituted to define the training curriculum for the Indian leg of the programme.

The plan finalized for astronaut training includes a building with the requisite facilities. Work order for the same has been released.

The preliminary design of Gaganyaan system was completed. A M]memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed with the Indian Air Force for crew management activities for Indian human space flight programme.

Seven DRDO labs are involved in the design and development of human-centric products and Academic institutes for the development of microgravity payloads.

The crew screening and selection have been completed. The crew members are currently undergoing generic space flight training at Russia.

Preliminary design review of various human-centric systems such as Space food and Potable water, Crew health monitoring system, Emergency survival kit, Crew medical kit, etc. have been completed.

Hardware realization was in an advanced stage for ground test and first unmanned mission. Qualification tests of liquid engines as part of the human rating of launch vehicle have commenced.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that as per COVID 19 protocols in Russia and health advisories issued by local authorities, the astronaut training in Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre (GCTC), Russia was halted for a period from March 28, 2020, to May 11, 2020.

As per the revised COVID 19 protocols, the training of Indian astronauts resumed from May 12, 2020.

The first unmanned mission is planned in December 2021. The second unmanned flight is planned in 2022-23, followed by human spaceflight demonstration.

NNN