PM Modi, who on Tuesday reviewed the preparations for the first demonstration flight of the Gaganyaan Mission, said India should aim to send a man to the Moon by 2040 and set up a space station by 2035. He also asked scientists to work on the Venus orbiter mission and the Mars lander.
The PM chaired a high-level meeting to assess the progress of India’s Gaganyaan Mission and to outline the future of India’s space exploration endeavours earlier today.
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S Somanath and other concerned officials were present at the meeting.
The Department of Space presented a comprehensive overview of the Gaganyaan Mission, including various technologies developed so far such as human-rated launch vehicles and system qualification.
It was noted that around 20 major tests, including 3 uncrewed missions of the Human Rated Launch Vehicle (HLVM3) are planned. The first demonstration flight of the Crew Escape System Test Vehicle is scheduled on 21 October. The meeting evaluated the mission’s readiness, affirming its launch in 2025.
Meanwhile, ISRO on Monday informed that the TV-D1 test flight is scheduled on October 21 between 7 to 9 am. As per the National Space Agency, the test vehicle development flight (TV-D1) will be conducted at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. It will help to test the crew module that is scheduled to house Indian astronauts during the human spaceflight late next year.
The ISRO chairman said that they will conduct three more test vehicle missions under the ambitious Gaganyaan programme after the maiden TV-D1 test flight.
"Mission Gaganyaan: The TV-D1 test flight is scheduled for October 21, 2023, between 7 am and 9 am from SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota," said ISRO in a post on X.
(With inputs from agencies)
Also read: Gaganyaan: First test flight of mission is scheduled for October 21 at 7 am, tweets ISRO
