Gaganyaan Mission: The names of four astronauts who will go to space have been revealed for ISRO’s Gaganyaan mission. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced their names. Earlier, he reviewed the progress of Gaganyaan mission and met the nominated astronauts and extended good wishes.
The names announced by PM Modi include fighter pilot Prashant Balakrishnan Nair, Angad Pratap, Ajit Krishnan and Shubhanshu Shukla. Among them, Prashant is a native of Nenmara in Palakkad, Kerala, who is serving as an Air Force Group Captain.
These four astronauts have flown all types of fighter jets in India. Therefore, we know the shortcomings and specialties of fighter jets. All of them have been trained at the Russian Space Training Center located in Geogny city of Russia. Currently, all of them are taking training at the Astronaut Training Facility in Bengaluru.
How was the selection?
Selection Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) had conducted trials to select astronauts for the Gaganyaan mission. Hundreds of pilots from across the country had passed in this. Out of these, top 12 were selected. After several rounds, the selection process was finalized and four Air Force pilots were selected for this mission.
Training completed in 2021
ISRO had sent these four pilots to Russia for further training. But due to Corona the training got delayed. It was completed in 2021. These pilots have taken many types of training in Russia. During the training, the pilots kept flying continuously and were also paying attention to their fitness. The special thing is that these four will not be sent for the Gaganyaan mission, rather only 2 or 3 pilots will be selected for the mission on the final flight.
Many types of simulators are being installed in ISRO’s Human Space Flight Center (HSFC) located in Bengaluru. They are practicing here only.
ISRO, which has been working on the Gaganyaan mission since 2007
ISRO had announced the Gaganyaan mission in 2020. Gaganyaan will be India’s first manned mission to space. Even though ISRO announced it in 2020, work on it has been going on since 2007. However, it could not move forward due to budget constraints at that time.
ISRO then did not have powerful GSLV rockets capable of carrying humans. In 2014, ISRO made GSLV Mark 2 rocket for this. However, ISRO has prepared for the Gaganyaan mission through the GSLV Mark 3 rocket. Chandrayaan was launched with this rocket. On Independence Day, on August 15, 2018, PM Modi had announced from the Red Fort that soon India will launch a program to send humans into space.
