After Gaganyaan, ISRO Will Make India Proud With 1st Ever Space Station Launch By 2022

Indian Space Research Organisation is currently facing some really nerve-wracking missions ahead of them. One of them is Gaganyaan -- India¡¯s first manned space mission -- that is scheduled to happen sometime in 2022. However, ISRO chief has revealed another mission that will truly take things to a whole new level.

ISRO

ISRO Chief K Sivan has stated that after the success of Gaganyaan, ISRO could soon build its own space station in Earth¡¯s orbit -- similar to the International Space Station and China¡¯s Tiangong -2 space station (which re-entered Earth in July 2019).

K Sivan said in an exclusive interview with Economic Times, ¡°Before Independence Day (in) 2022, we are targeting the first manned mission,¡± Isro chairman said. ¡°We will sustain that with more (human spaceflight) missions. Then we will have our own space station.¡±

ISRO¡¯s Gaganyaan mission has already enlisted four IAF pilots that will be heading to Russia this month for training to be an astronaut. India is also taking Russia¡¯s help in developing a life-support system for the crew capsule. K Sivan has confirmed that the astronaut suits will be fabricated in Russia.

The rocket that will be taking Indian astronauts to space is the GSLV Mark III that weighs a massive 3.7 tonnes and has the capacity to carry three astronauts. However, in India¡¯s maiden human flight, it¡¯ll only be carrying one.

ISRO also has two unmanned missions planned for this year, one being the launch of a humanoid into space with the GSLV Mark III. The rocket is autonomous and is tuned with adherence to a human onboard.

Reuters

K Sivan added, ¡°The humanoid will have systems that simulate human functions.¡± This way scientists will be able to gauge the impact of the spaceflight on a human astronaut, preventing them from harm.

The space agency will conduct six microgravity experiments in the crew capsule during the two unmanned missions. ISRO also plans to launch two communication satellites under the IDRSS or Indian Data Relay Satellite System to help astronauts communicate with the ground team.

India has budgeted over Rs 10,000 crores for the human space flight mission and has been working on it for two decades now.