Thiruvananthapuram: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced the four astronaut-designates for Gaganyaan mission during his visit to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) on Tuesday.
He announced Group Captain Prashanth Nair, Group Captain Angad Prathap, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla will be the as the astronaut-designates for the mission.
The four test pilots have completed their training in Russia and are now based in a unit of the ISRO getting familiar with the intricacies of the mission.
Of the four, three will be on board the Indian-crewed orbital spacecraft.
During his Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) visit, he reviewed the progress of the Gaganyaan Mission and bestows astronaut wings to the astronaut designates.
It is worth mentioning here that the Gaganyaan Mission is India’s first human space flight program for which extensive preparations are underway at various ISRO centres.
Earlier in October, after an unsuccessful launch of the ISRO TV-D1 rocket linked with the Gaganyaan mission, Test Vehicle-D1 lifted off successfully.
According to ISRO, the crew module in this mission is extensively instrumented to capture the flight data for evaluation of the performance of various systems. The deceleration of the crew module will be done with parachutes with pyro systems. The parachute deployment initiation will be done when the crew module is at about 17 km altitude.
The crew module will splash down on the sea at about 10 km from the launch pad at Sriharikota at about 531 seconds after the rocket’s lift off and would float till it was recovered by the Indian Navy.
Recovery ships will approach the crew module and a team of divers will attach a buoy, hoist it using a ship crane and bring it to the shore. The crew escape system will hit the sea at about 14 km from Sriharikota.
This Test Vehicle mission with this crew module is a significant milestone for the overall Gaganyaan programme as a near-complete system is integrated for a flight test. The success of this test flight will set the stage for the remaining qualification tests and unmanned missions, leading to the first Gaganyaan mission with Indian astronauts, ISRO said.
Ms Kalinga