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Manned space mission before 75th I-Day: ISRO chief
Why is it in news?
- If everything goes according to plan, in 40 months, three Indians will be launched into space by an Indian rocket. This is the aim of India’s ambitious manned spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, the contours of which were outlined by Dr. K. Sivan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday.
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- ISRO began work on the manned mission in 2004 and some of these technologies have been demonstrated successfully through various tests — Space Capsule Recovery Experiment, Crew module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment and Pad Abort Test.
- In the Independence Day address from the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that an Indian will go to space by 2022 “with the tricolour in his hand.”
- ISRO will use its GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle, which has the necessary payload capability to launch.
- Two unmanned missions will be undertaken prior to sending humans on the first manned flight within 30 months and manned mission in 40 months.
- The mission will aim to send a three-person crew to space for a period of 5-7 days. The spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400km.
- The total programme is expected to cost less than ₹10,000 crore and will result in significant spinoffs in multiple dimensions, including technology spinoffs in the social sector.
- A crew module, along with the service module, together called the orbital module weighing seven tonnes, will be mounted atop the GSLV launch vehicle.
- In the return phase, at 120 km above earth, the crew module will separate from the service module and head towards earth in a controlled manner.
- It will take 36 minutes to reach the earth.
- The project will also result in employment for 15,000 people most of it in the private sector.
- To accelerate the programme, ISRO is considering seeking collaborations with space agencies from friendly countries with advanced space programmes.
- The programme once launched, will make India the fourth nation in the world to have a manned space mission. So far only the U.S., Russia and China have launched human space flight missions.
Source
The Hindu