ISRO-NASA partners with Axiom Space to send one Gaganyatri to ISS soon: Union Minister

NEW DELHI — In a joint Gaganyaan mission, ISRO and NASA have partnered with the US-base private space habitat company Axiom Space to send one Gaganyatri soon to the International Space Station (ISS), Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh has said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

Gaganyaan is India’s first human spaceflight mission, slated for launch in 2025, aims to send a manned three-day mission to space, which will orbit 400 km above Earth and will return.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on a visit to ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Station in February, had announced the names of the four astronauts — three Group Captains and one Wing Commander from the Indian Air Force — chosen for the historic Gaganyaan mission.

“ISRO is pursuing an ISRO-NASA joint mission to the International Space Station (ISS) wherein one Gaganyaatri from ISRO will undertake space travel to ISS,” said Dr Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology.

“This is a collaborative effort of ISRO, NASA, and NASA-identified private entity, i.e., Axiom Space. Recently, ISRO has signed a Space Flight Agreement with Axiom Space for this joint mission to the ISS,” he added.

The selected astronauts — Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan, and Angad Pratap, and wing commander Shubanshu Shukla — are currently going through intense training for the country’s first crewed flight.

The astronauts have successfully undergone training on spaceflight basic modules in Russia. Currently, they are being trained at the ISRO’s Astronauts Training Facility (ATF) in Bengaluru.

Dr Singh said, “Two out of three semesters of the training programme is completed. Independent training simulator and static mockup simulators realised”.

Further, sharing an update on the mission, the MoS Science said ground testing of propulsion systems stages, including solid, liquid, and cryogenic engine, towards the human rating of the launch vehicle has been completed.

The design and realisation of five types of crew escape system solid motors have also been completed.

The Union Minister said static testing of all five types of solid motors too has been completed. Also, the first Test Vehicle mission (TV-D1) for performance validation of the crew escape system and parachute deployment has been accomplished.