Gaganyaan mission's 1st test flight to happen in December: ISRO
What's the story
India's first human spaceflight mission, the Gaganyaan, is all set for its first test flight in December. The announcement was made by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chief V Narayanan during a press conference today. The event was chaired by Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh and saw the media interaction of the selected Indian astronauts.
Astronaut statements
Proud to represent India, say astronauts
The selected astronauts, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and Group Captain Prashant B Nair, expressed their pride in representing India. Shukla echoed the famous words of Indian astronaut Rakesh Sharma after his space mission in 1984 by saying that India looks "saare jahaan se achcha" (better than the entire world). Nair compared his role to Lakshman from the Hindu epic Ramayana and credited ISRO's team for their support.
Training insights
Knowledge gained will help India's missions: Shukla
Reflecting on his experience, Shukla stressed that the value of a human space mission goes beyond just training. He said all the knowledge he gained over the past year will be extremely useful for India's own missions, Gaganyaan and Bharatiya Antariksh Station. Shukla also noted that the experience in space is vastly different from what is learned on Earth due to many changes in the human body during this time.
Future missions
Update on NASA-ISRO satellite
Narayanan also gave an update on ISRO's ongoing and future projects. He revealed that the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite, a joint venture of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and ISRO, is working perfectly. In the next two to three months, ISRO will launch a 6,500kg communication satellite for the US using one of their rockets.