Gaganyaan Astronauts Training Suspended In Russia Due To COVID-19 Outbreak

COVID-19 pandemic has truly affected our lives in a drastic way. Businesses are shut, economies are crumbling and now it is also affecting future space missions by ISRO, especially India¡¯s first manned mission Gaganyaan.

Reuters/AFP

According to a recent report by the Press Trust of India, the training for the four Indian Air Force pilots at the Yuri Gagarin Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Centre has been shut temporarily, due to COVID-19 outbreak.

The pilots have been undergoing rigorous training to become astronauts at the Training Centre near Moscow since February.

According to a source, who wishes to be unnamed, in a conversation with PTI, "Our (prospective) astronauts are fine. They are currently in a hostel. We have been told the centre will open by the month-end.¡±

In case you were wondering that the break will cause harm to the schedule to prepare the astronauts, sources have revealed that the training goes on for 12 months and they had kept a buffer of 3 months, for unpredicted situations.

According to COVID-19 tracker by Google, as of now, Russia has nearly 5000 active cases and has reported a total of 58 deaths.

Gaganyaan astronauts are facing one problem after another. A recent report had revealed that that the astronauts hadn¡¯t received necessary authorisation documentation due to existing bureaucratic bottlenecks. This also prevented them from getting salaries and allowances.

ISRO

ISRO¡¯s Gaganyaan mission is set to launch its first manned spaceflight in 2022. However, before that, they¡¯re going to conduct a test flight with a humanoid robot Vyomitra in 2021 that¡¯ll simulate human conditions to fine-tune the final ride.

The rocket that will be taking Indian astronauts to space is the GSLV Mark III that weighs a massive 640,000 kilograms with the capacity to carry three astronauts. However, in India¡¯s maiden human flight, it¡¯ll only be carrying one.