India's Gaganyaan Human Spaceflight Mission Achieves Key Milestones

Space minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday informed the Rajya Sabha that India’s first human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, has achieved major milestones in the development and validation of critical human-rating systems, marking steady progress towards the country’s maiden indigenous human spaceflight mission.

Speaking in Rajya Sabha, Singh said the Human Rated Launch Vehicle (HLVM3) has completed the development and ground testing of all propulsion stages and structures. He informed that the propulsion systems of the crew module and service module have been developed, tested and qualified, while the engineering model of the environmental control and life support system (ECLSS), thermal protection system, deceleration system, crew module up-righting System and end-to-end avionics have also been successfully developed and tested.

The minister said significant progress has also been achieved in ensuring crew safety. All five types of motors for the crew escape system (CES) have been developed and successfully static tested, while all associated structures have been realised and qualified. He further informed that key mission infrastructure, including the orbital module preparation facility, Gaganyaan control centre, crew training facility and modifications to the second launch pad, has been established to support upcoming mission activities.

Jitendra Singh informed that the TV-D1 Test Vehicle Mission, undertaken for in-flight validation of the crew escape system, has been completed. In addition, integrated air drop Test-01 and integrated air drop Test-02 using a simulated crew module have successfully validated the deceleration system. Activities towards the next Test Vehicle Mission (TV-D2) are currently in progress. He said the ground communication network has been finalised, IDRSS-1 feeder stations and terrestrial links have been established, recovery assets have been identified, and the crew recovery plan has been worked out, while various ground qualification tests of newly developed systems continue in parallel.

Outlining the mission roadmap, the minister said the first uncrewed experimental Gaganyaan mission carrying the Vyommitra half-humanoid is targeted during the fourth quarter of 2026 to validate technologies being developed for the first time under the programme. This will be followed by two additional uncrewed missions in the configuration of the first crewed flight, targeted by 2027, before India’s maiden human orbital mission.