Gaganyaan
India's Human Spaceflight Programme
Gaganyaan is India's first human spaceflight mission, being developed by ISRO under the Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC). It aims to send a crew of three Indian astronauts (designated Gagannauts) to a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) of approximately 400 km for a mission duration of up to 7 days, before a splashdown in the Bay of Bengal. The mission has proceeded through several milestones: crew selection and training (completed in Russia and India), unmanned test flight with a humanoid robot (Vyommitra), and progressive crew escape system tests. Medical screening and health monitoring of the selected crew — Group Captain Prashanth Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Pratap, and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla — is a critical element of mission preparation.
- Gaganyaan mission profile: 3 crew members, ~400 km LEO orbit, up to 7 days, Bay of Bengal splashdown.
- Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC): dedicated ISRO centre established in 2019 to manage the Gaganyaan programme.
- Astronaut crew: 4 Indian Air Force officers (short-listed); final crew yet to be formally announced for the crewed mission.
- Vyommitra: ISRO's female humanoid robot that flew on the uncrewed test mission to simulate human responses in space.
- Budget: ₹9,023 crore approved by the Union Cabinet in 2018; subsequent revisions account for project extensions.
- India aims to establish a space station by 2035 and achieve a crewed lunar mission by 2040 — making long-duration space medicine expertise foundational.
● Tracked since March 10, 2026 · last seen July 05, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes