ISRO Gaganyaan mission – Artifex.News

Gaganyaan mission: 90% of development work completed, says ISRO Chairman

admin — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 11:33:00 +0000

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

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CE20 cryogenic engine clears human rating test, ready for Gaganyaan missions

admin — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 06:33:52 +0000

A file photo of ISRO conducting the hot test of CE20 cryogenic engine for the LVM3, at its test facility in Mahendragiri, Odisha.
| Photo Credit: File photo

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has accomplished a major milestone in the human rating of its CE20 cryogenic engine, that powers the cryogenic stage of the human-rated LVM3 launch vehicle for Gaganyaan missions, with completion of the final round of ground qualification tests.

ISRO posted on X: “Mission Gaganyaan: ISRO’s CE20 cryogenic engine is now human-rated for Gaganyaan missions. Rigorous testing demonstrates the engine’s mettle. The CE20 engine identified for the first uncrewed flight LVM3 G1 also went through acceptance tests.”

Human-rating refers to rating a system that is capable of safely transporting humans.

The final test was carried out on February 13. It was the seventh in a series of vacuum ignition tests carried out at the High Altitude Test Facility at ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendragiri, to simulate flight conditions.

According to ISRO, the ground qualification tests for the human rating of the CE20 engine involved life demonstration tests, endurance tests, and performance assessment under nominal operating conditions as well as off-nominal conditions w.r.t thrust, mixture ratio, and propellant tank pressure. All the ground qualification tests of the CE20 engine for the Gaganyaan programme have been successfully completed.

In order to qualify the CE20 engine for human rating standards, four engines have undergone 39 hot firing tests under different operating conditions for a cumulative duration of 8,810 seconds against the minimum human rating qualification standard requirement of 6,350 seconds.

Update on first unmanned Gaganyaan (G1) mission

ISRO has also successfully completed the acceptance tests of the flight engine identified for the first unmanned Gaganyaan (G1) mission, tentatively scheduled for Q2 of 2024.

This engine will power the upper stage of the human-rated LVM3 vehicle and has a thrust capability of 19 to 22 tonnes with a specific impulse of 442.5 seconds.

The Gaganyaan project envisages demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching crew of three members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3-day mission, and bring them back safely to earth, by landing in Indian sea waters.

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First Test Flight Of ISRO’s Gaganyaan Mission On October 21: Minister Jitendra Singh

admin — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 17:21:41 +0000

The success of the test will set the stage for the first unmanned “Gaganyaan” mission.

New Delhi:

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will carry out the first of several test flights ahead of the Gaganyaan mission on October 21, Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said on Tuesday.

The test vehicle development flight (TV-D1) will be conducted at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh to test the crew module that is scheduled to house Indian astronauts during the human spaceflight late next year.

The test involves launching the module to outer space, bringing it back to earth and recovering it after touchdown in the Bay of Bengal. The Navy has already started mock operations to recover the module, Singh said at a felicitation programme of the ISRO engineers involved in the Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L-1 missions.

Along with the crew module, the TV-D1 will also test the “crew escape” system that is expected to bring back the crew to earth if the spacecraft faces a problem while ascending into space.

The success of the test will set the stage for the first unmanned “Gaganyaan” mission and ultimately, manned mission to outer space in a low-earth orbit, the minister said.

Before the ultimate manned “Gaganyaan” mission, there will be a test flight next year, which will carry “Vyommitra”, a female robot astronaut, he added.

The Gaganyaan project envisages a demonstration of the human spaceflight capability by launching a human crew to an orbit of 400 km and bringing them safely back to earth by landing in Indian sea waters

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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