New Delhi: The first flight of the Gaganyaan programme, an uncrewed mission is currently scheduled for the end of the year. Last week, at the 35th convocation ceremony of the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, ISRO Chairman V Narayanan said, “All the developments for Gaganyaan are nearing completion. Now, we are planning three uncrewed missions before the crewed mission. First uncrewed mission is targeted somewhere towards the end of this year.” The flight was supposed to take place in December 2024, was then pushed to March 2025, and has now been pushed to December 2025. There are two months left, and any more delays will have a ripple effect on the entire programme.
This timeline shared early in the year has already gone for a toss. (Image Credit: ISRO).
There are eight flights planned in the Gaganyaan programme, three test flights, two crewed flights, an autonomous docking with the ISS, the deployment of the first module of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS), and then an autonomous docking with BAS-1. Sticking to this schedule is necessary to deploy and operate the BAS by 2035. According to the planned schedule right now, each of the flights will take place after a gap of six months. The first crewed mission has now been shifted from December 2026 to 2027. There are now only two months left. Any more delays is bound to delay the entire roadmap for India’s aspirations in space.
Gaganyaan programme is severely delayed
There were a number of planned test flights that were expected to be conducted before the first uncrewed Gaganyaan flight, including a number of integrated air drop tests, a second pad abort test, and an abort test at a higher altitude before the first Gaganyaan flight, which will now presumably be conducted before the first crewed Gaganyaan flight. The Union Cabinet approved the Gaganyaan programme back in 2018, with a budget of 10,000 crore, with the aim of launching a crewed mission to Earth orbit from India in 2022, by the 75th Independence day or earlier. The COVID-19 pandemic was blamed for delays in this timeline.