ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan, with Rajarajan A (left), Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), and M Ganesh Pillai, Scientific Secretary of ISRO, at a press conference on Curtain Raiser Event of the Emerging Science, Technology & Innovation Conclave (ESTIC – 2025), at ISRO HQ, in Bengaluru on October 23, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Murali Kumar K
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman V. Narayanan on Thursday (October 23, 2025) said that about 90% of the development work on the Gaganyaan mission has been completed.
“The Gangyaan mission is going on very well. A lot of technological development has to take place. Number one the rocket has to be human rated, the life support system, the crew escape system and of course human centric products. I can say today that approximately 90% of the development work has been completed,” Mr. Narayanan told reporters in Bengaluru.
He added that the crewed mission to launch the Indian astronauts into space will take place in 2027 and prior to that ISRO will undertake three uncrewed missions.
“Three uncrewed missions have to be accomplished, the first uncrewed mission with the humanoid Vyomitra is expected to take flight by the end of this year. We want to accomplish the crewed mission by 2027,” he said.
The Gaganyaan project envisages demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of three members to an orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission and bringing them back safely to Earth by landing in Indian sea waters.
On the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite launched on July 30, 2025, Mr. Narayanan said that the satellite is healthy and it would be declared operational in another 10-15 days.
‘Totally healthy’
“Initial input states that the satellite is totally healthy and both the payloads are working well,” he said.
NISAR is the first satellite to observe the earth with a dual-frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) — NASA’s L-band and ISRO’s S-band — both using NASA’s 12-metre unfurlable mesh reflector antenna, integrated with ISRO’s modified I3K satellite bus.
The NISAR satellite will scan the earth and provide all-weather, day-and-night data at 12-day intervals, and enable a wide range of applications.
NVS-02 satellite
On the NVS-02 satellite which suffered a technical glitch as ISRO was unable to perform the intended orbit raising operations due to a valve malfunction, the ISRO Chairman said, “The NVS-02 satellite has gone to the elliptical orbit and we could not take it to circular orbit because of a valve malfunction. The failure analysis committee has completed the investigation and zeroed down on the fault. The recommendation of the committee will be placed before the Government.”
Published – October 23, 2025 05:03 pm IST
