PM Modi announces names of vyomnauts for Gaganyaan mission
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced the names of the four vyomnauts (astronauts), chosen for India's first manned space mission, Gaganyaan. He revealed the names during a visit to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The team includes Group Captain Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, Wing Commander Shubanshu Shukla, Group Captain Angad Prathap, and Group Captain Ajit Krishnan of the Indian Air Force (IAF). All of them have extensive test pilot experience.
Vyomnauts' training and selection process
These vyomnauts have been training at the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) facility in Bengaluru, after being selected at the IAF's Institute of Aerospace Medicine. In 2019, ISRO and Glavkosmos, a subsidiary of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, signed an agreement for astronaut training. The team trained at Russia's Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre from February 2020 to March 2021.
Gaganyaan mission details and NASA collaboration
The goal of the Gaganyaan mission is to showcase India's ability to send humans into space. Vyomnauts will be sent 400km above Earth for a three-day mission before safely returning to Indian waters. NASA administrator Bill Nelson revealed during a 2023 visit to Delhi that NASA will train an Indian astronaut for a mission to the ISS by the end of 2024. The chosen vyomnaut is likely to be one of the four currently preparing for the Gaganyaan mission.
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Progress on the Gaganyaan mission
Last week, ISRO completed testing of the CE20 cryogenic engine. Now declared "human-rated," it will power the upper stage of Gaganyaan's LVM3 launch vehicle. This was the final exam in a series of seven vacuum ignition tests. The testing completion along with the vyomnaut name announcement, brings the Rs. 9,000 crore Gaganyaan mission, one step closer to fruition. India aims to join the US, China, and Russia in sending humans into space.
India's first astronaut Rakesh Sharma's journey
The four vyomnauts will join Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, in the exclusive club of Indians going to space. On April 3, 1984, Sharma flew to space aboard the Soyuz T-11, as part of the Interkosmos program. When the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asked him how India looked from space, he responded, "Saare Jahan Se Accha." (Better than every other country). Sharma's journey to the cosmos paved the path for fellow Indians.
