Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday, inaugurated three space infrastructure projects worth ₹1800 crore ($217.2 million) as well as introduced the astronaut wings and met the astronauts selected for the upcoming manned moon Gaganyaan mission at Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
The shortlisted astronauts are Group Captain Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Pratap, and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla.
The integration includes SLV Integration Facility (PIF) at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikotam, Semi-cryogenics Integrated Engine and Stage Test facility’ at ISRO Propulsion Complex at Mahendragiri, Trisonic Wind Tunnel’ at VSSC, Thiruvananthapuram.
In the meeting, Indian Prime Minister noted the equipment in Gaganyaan is ‘Made in India’.
Additionally, he expressed that space science is also social science aiding agricultural, weather-related, calamity warning, irrigation-related, navigation maps and other uses, like the NAVIC system for fishermen.
Earlier this month, ISRO designed Vyommitra, a woman robot astronaut is scheduled to fly third quarter of this year (i.e., July, August, September), into space before the Gaganyaan mission, a manned mission to low earth orbit (LEO).
Gaganyaan project aims to achieve human spaceflight capability by sending a crew of three members into orbit at an altitude of 400 km for a three-day mission as well as bring the crew back safely to Earth by landing in the waters of the Indian Ocean.
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