Two crewed missions under Gaganyaan programme by 2028: Govt in Rajya Sabha-OxBig News Network

Vital changes have been carried out in Indian’s ambitious human spaceflight programme “Gaganyaan”. Instead of one crewed mission, the target has been now revised to two crewed mission under the Gaganyaan programme.

Instead of three missions (one crewed and two uncrewed) as per the original plan, India will now have a total of eight missions (two crewed and six uncrewed) missions under the Gaganyaan programme.

There is, however, no clarity on when the first crewed mission will take off. The first crewed mission was supposed to be preceded by two unscrewed missions but the plan may have undergone a change and there may be more than two uncrewed experimental missions before sending a crewed flight to the space.

However, the year 2028 has been set as the deadline for carrying out all eight missions under the programme. The changes in the programme have been carried out in view of the country’s new space ambitions, including having India’s own space station “Bharatiya Antariksh Station”.

Information regarding the revised programme of Gaganyaan was shared by Jitendra Singh, MoS, Science and Technology, on Thursday in the Rajya Sabha in response to an unstarred question asked by BJP member Sumer Singh Solanki.

Acknowledging there is a revision in the scope of the Gaganyaan programme, Jitendra Singh’s written answer said, “Against the original plan of undertaking three missions (1 crewed+2 uncrewed), the scope of the programme has been enhanced to demonstrate and validate various technologies of Gaganyaan programme and for building and operating Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS) through a total of eight missions (2 crewed+6 uncrewed) in a phased manner by 2028”.

“The total funding for Gaganyaan programme has been enhanced to Rs 20,193 crore to address the programmatic requirements as per the revised scope which includes new developments for Bharatiya Antariksh Station & precursor missions, and additional requirements to meet the ongoing Gaganyaan Programme”, the answer stated.

Replying to another unstarred question asked by Congress member Ramnjeet Ranjan, Mos Singh informed that India’s vision for space envisages creation of an operational Bharatiya Antariksh Station by 2035 and Indian Crewed Lunar Mission by 2040.

Towards building these new capabilities to enable longer duration Indian human space missions, various technologies have to be developed and validated. As per the revised scope, demonstration of these technologies is planned through eight missions (2 crewed+6 uncrewed) in a phased manner.