No decision yet on sending Gaganyaan astronauts to International Space Station
The Hindu
While Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden signed an agreement on June 22 to conceive a joint mission sending an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) by 2024, it is unclear if this will involve astronauts currently being trained for the indigenous Gaganyaan mission.
While Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden signed an agreement on June 22 to conceive a joint mission sending an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) by 2024, it is unclear if this will involve astronauts currently being trained for the indigenous Gaganyaan mission.
“The details of this mission… on whether someone being trained for Gaganyaan will be part of the ISS trip is still to be decided,” Minister of State (Space), Jitendra Singh, told reporters on June 23. He also said that it was yet uncertain if an Indian astronaut will be in space before the proposed Gaganyaan mission. The agreement mentions providing “advanced training” to Indian astronauts at the Johnson Space Centre, Houston, Texas.
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The Gaganyaan mission, led by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), proposes to launch a crew of three into an orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission and bring them back safely to earth. There are multiple tests underway to test each aspect of this mission and, Mr Singh has told Parliament that the final launch is scheduled for the “fourth quarter of 2024.” India is currently collaborating with Russia in training the future Gaganyaan astronauts.
S Somnath, Chairman, ISRO, told The Hindu that the proposed participants in the ISS was “yet to be decided.” The decision to have an Indian astronaut on the ISS marks a significant change to Isro’s policy that has historically seen little value to having an Indian astronaut aboard the ISS. Mr Somnath in an April 2022 interview to the publication Geospatial World said, “We did not join ISS because in our assessment, we didn’t find merit in joining it.” His predecessor, S Sivan, in June 2019 had stated that India would not join the ISS and would work on developing its own space station. Mr Somnath did not respond to a query from The Hindu on the reasons for this policy shift.
“For a long time there has been a question on whether we should be part of the (ISS). Ultimately this has happened. Certain quarters had some reservations at the diplomatic level but now there is unanimity,” said Singh.
Since its launch in 1998, the ISS has continuously been inhabited since November 2000 under a U.S.-Russian-led partnership that also includes Canada, Japan and 11 European countries. Russia last year, following the outbreak of the Ukraine war, has said it will withdraw from the ISS after 2024 though the US has said that it was committed to continue supporting the project until 2030 and that it was discussing this with its “partners.”
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