New Delhi: Till as recently as the ESTIC curtain raiser last week, ISRO was maintaining end of 2025 as the launch date for the highly anticipated inaugural mission of India’s ambitious Gaganyaan programme to life humans to Earth orbit using domestic hardware. There are three uncrewed flights planned before the first crewed flight in 2027, designated as Gaganyaan G1, G2 and G3. The crewed missions are designated as Gaganyaan H1 and H2. In the post-launch press conference following the successful deployment of the CMS-03 communications satellite for the Indian Navy by the LVM3-M5 flight, ISRO Chairman V Narayanan revealed a new schedule that pushes the Gaganyaan G1 flight to March 2026.
ISRO Chairman V Narayanan said, “Gaganyaan, right now we are in the advanced stages of development. Before accomplishing the crewed Gaganyaan mission, we have to do three uncrewed missions. We are working for the first uncrewed mission, called G1 mission. And, that is also going to be achieved before the end of the financial year. In fact, we are targeting maybe this year end, and we are working towards that target.” ISRO began the launch campaign for the Gaganyaan G1 mission in 2024 itself. This will be the first integrated developmental flight of the brand new hardware domestically developed for human spaceflight.
Is a launch possible in December 2025?
There are currently two operational launchpads at ISRO’s spaceport in Sriharikota, not counting the private launch pad by Agnikul Cosmos. The First Launch Pad handles small rocket flights of PSLV and SSLV. The Second Launch Pad can also be used for PSLV and SSLV flights, but is the only one capable of accommodating ISRO’s larger rockets, the GSLV and the LVM3. ISRO plans to launch the LVM3-M6 mission next from the SLP in mid-December, carrying Bluebird communication satellites for the private American company AST Spacemobile. If ISRO manages two LVM3 flights within the same month from the SLP, it would be an unprecedented achievement.