ISRO chairman announces 2024 as the year of 'Gaganyaan readiness'
ISRO Chairman S Somanath has declared 2024 as the year of "Gaganyaan readiness," with numerous tests planned for the highly anticipated manned mission. Earlier in the day, the Bengaluru-based space agency successfully launched its first X-Ray Polarimeter satellite as part of the PSLV C58 mission. Somanath, who also serves as a Secretary in the Department of Space, revealed, "We are going to get ready for at least 12-14 missions this year."
Gaganyaan mission began with the TV-D1
The Gaganyaan mission is targeted for 2025. To recall, it was initiated with the TV-D1 or the abort mission, which was successfully conducted in October 2023. TV-D1 was a substantial training experience for the whole Gaganyaan mission team. ISRO has four such abort missions in the series. "Our target is to do at least two more in 2024. By then, we will have three abort mission demonstrations," Somanath said.
Unmanned missions ensure Gaganyaan's readiness for human spaceflight
Somanath emphasized that the unmanned missions would enable ISRO to assess its preparedness for various hardware components. He also mentioned that the space agency would conduct helicopter-based drop tests to validate the parachute systems for the unmanned mission. "There will be multiple drop tests. Also, we will have the launch pad abort and hundreds of such valuation tests including environmental control support system tests, the crew module-related tests, and simulation tests," he explained.
Other ISRO missions lined up for 2024
As for other ISRO missions slated for 2024, Somanath stated, "We are going to have launches of GSLV for NISAR this year itself. We are going to have the first flight of GSLV with INSAT-3DS soon. The (launch) vehicle is almost ready." He added that the second flight of GSLV would transport the NASA-ISRO synthetic aperture radar satellite, necessitating a minimum of two GSLV satellite launches. Several additional missions are in the works, including those in the NavIC series.
