Indian astronauts travelling by Gaganyaan will be called ‘Gaganauts’ or ‘Vyomnauts’, and other interesting pieces of information about our space vehicle
New Delhi: By 2022 India shall enter in the super elite club of only four nations to send humans to space. India will be the fourth entry in this exclusive club. The Union Cabinet approved a budget of Rs 10,000 crore for implementing the project called ‘Gaganyaan’. A three-member crew would be sent up in space.
Here is all you need to know:
1. India will send a three-member crew in space for seven days. The project is called ‘Gaganyaan’ (space vehicle). Indian astronauts will be called ‘Gaganauts or Vyomnauts’.
2. The ambitious project was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Independence Day.
3. The manned spaceflight project has been accorded a budget of Rs 10,000 crore.
4. The project is to be realised by 2022. The Vyomnauts will travel to Low Earth Orbit.
5. ISRO will employ its biggest rocket so far, the Geo-Synchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III to take the astronauts up in the space from the Sriharikota space centre.
6. India has taken Russian and French help in implementing the project.
7. India has already tested re-entry technology critical for the project and for bringing the men back home. A crew module called Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE) had been mastered back in 2014. A module was launched and later recovered from the Bay of Bengal.
8. India has indigenously developed and perfected space suits.
9. A pad abort test has been conducted too, wherein the launch can be successfully aborted in case of a launchpad accident and the crew saved.
10. As part of the programme, two unmanned flight tests would be tested in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
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