ISRO declares 2025 ‘Gaganyaan year’; agency chief V. Narayanan highlights upcoming missions

The Indian Space Research Organisation chief V. Narayanan has declared 2025 as ‘Gaganyaan Year’. The agency is expected to launch its first uncrewed mission by December. He also highlighted the successful completion of 7,200 space mission tests, with an additional 3,000 tests pending.

 

"This year is a very important year for us. We have declared it Gaganyaan year. Before sending the humans, we have planned three uncrewed missions and the first uncrewed mission is planned this year. Till date, more than 7,200 tests have been completed and about 3,000 tests are pending; work is going on 24 hours", Narayanan said at an event in Kolkata.

 

In December 2018, the Gaganyaan mission was approved, bringing the possibility of a human spaceflight to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The technologies also establish the longevity of Indian human space exploration endeavour.

 

First uncrewed mission: Vyommitra

 

Vyommitra, the first uncrewed mission, is to be launched by December 2025. Additionally, the next mission is targeted towards the first human space flight by 2027.

 

"By December this year, there will be the first uncrewed mission, followed by two uncrewed missions, and we are targeting the first human space flight by the first quarter of 2027. In fact, almost every month this year, a launch is scheduled. The first uncrewed mission with a robot called 'Vyommitra' will be launched by the end of this year," Narayanan said.

 

Completion of SpaDex and future missions

 

The ISRO chief also talked about the number of missions that are planned in 2025. This includes NASA-ISRO synthetic aperture radar satellite to be launched by India’s own launch vehicle.

 

"Today, we are happy to report that the SpaDeX mission has been successfully completed. We accounted for 10kg of fuel to do this mission, but we did it with only half the fuel and the rest of the fuel is available, and in the coming months, you will hear that a lot of experiments are planned. This year, a number of important missions are planned and there is going to be a NASA-ISRO synthetic aperture radar satellite and it will be launched by our own launch vehicle and we are going to have a commercial mission and a communication satellite for commercial aspects, which we are going to launch," he added.

 

The SpaDex mission is a cost-effective technology demonstrator mission that uses two small spacecraft launched by PSLV to demonstrate in-space docking, according to the ISRO’s official website.

 

Chandrayaan 5 mission with Japan

 

Narayanan also detailed the Chandrayaan 5 Mission, which is in collaboration with Japan.

 

"Right now, we (ISRO) are also working on Chandrayaan-4 and Chandrayaan-5. Chandrayaan-5, in collaboration with Japan, will have a 6,400kg lander carrying a 350-kg rover. It will have a lifespan of 100 days," he said.

 

The Chandrayaan mission with Japan aims to enhance the scientific capabilities, with significantly heavier equipment. 

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