The new chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Dr S Somanath has said that the space agency will launch as many as five satellite missions this year and discussed the status of the Gaganyaan and other space missions with the Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh.
The five satellites to be launched this year are: GSAT-21, RICAT-1A PSLV C5-2, OCEANSAT-3, INS 2B ANAND PSLV C-53, SSLV-D1 Micro SAT.
The new chairman of ISRO also appraised the minister with regards to the Gaganyaan mission, India’s maiden human spaceflight mission that will launch three astronauts going to space in 2023.
However, the Covid-19 pandemic caused a delay in the timeline of the Gaganyaan program, but now the mission is back on track, and all the systems needed for the unmanned mission are getting realised, Somanath told Jitendra Singh.
Dr Somanath said the first test vehicle flight for Gaganyaan will be carried out in the second half of 2022, and the second unmanned mission will be conducted at the end of 2022. Also, the Indian astronauts who will be launched into space have successfully undergone the Generic Space Flight Training in Russia.
According to a statement released by ISRO, a dedicated ad hoc astronaut training center has been established in Bengaluru, specifically to train the astronauts for the Gaganyaan mission and the agency is preparing for the human mission involved in-flight demonstration of Crew Escape System functioning in the lower atmosphere and exercise recovery of the crew module after splashdown is in progress.
The Minister for Science and Technology said that Dr Somanath is taking over the prestigious assignment at a very eventful time, and will lead ISRO through some of the most historic missions, including Gaganyaan, according to the statement.
Singh also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a special impetus to the Indian space programs and that space technology has now been made applicable in several sectors including roads, highways, railways, healthcare, and agriculture.
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