India's deep-sea Samudrayaan mission hits a delay
India's big plan to send people 6,000 meters underwater with the Samudrayaan submersible has hit a snag—the special foam needed for buoyancy, coming from France, is late.
Because of this, the first major trials (originally set for December 2024) have been delayed.
If successful, this mission would put India among a handful of countries exploring the ocean's deepest parts for valuable resources.
What's happening behind the scenes
To keep things moving, Chennai's NIOT built a steel test version of the sub and managed to dive it 100 meters so far.
The real syntactic foam is being tested in Norway and should be ready by year-end.
After that, the final titanium hull will get pressure-tested in Russia.
If all goes well, an official 500-meter dive is planned for April 2026 as part of India's push toward deep-sea tech and exploration.