ISRO manned capsule
This project has been in progress since 2004 Was to be completed before 75th Independence Day in 2022(Now NET 2024).
The first unmanned flight would be sent in orbit within 30 months -- beginning from August 2018
Second unmanned flights would be sent within six months of the first launch.
Third and the first human spacecraft would be placed in orbit within four months of the second launch likely to take place at the end of December 2021 or January 2022.
What is the Human Space mission 'Gaganyaan' all about? (NOTE: the second Half of the film shows an animation of the USA's SLS rocket.)
ORBITAL MODULE -- GAGANYAAN
The Gaganyaan mission was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day address. He had said that by 2022 or even before that, some of the young boys and girls will unfurl the tricolour in space.With a mass of seven tonnes, the Gaganyaan system module is named by the ISRO as Orbital Module -- a combination of the service module and crew module.
The crew module in which the three astronauts will leave for space will be made of 3.7-metre diameter and seven-metre height.
To send humans to space, ISRO has developed critical technologies like:
re-entry mission capability
crew escape system
crew module configuration
thermal protection system
the prototype of a space suit
The Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE) was conducted in 2007, Crew Module Atmospheric Reentry Experiment (CARE) in 2014 and Pad Abort Test in 2018.
The Pad Abort Test demonstrated the safe recovery of the crew module in case of any exigency during the launch of the mission.
The Indian Minister of State Jitendra Singh said "The programme is expected to cost less than Rs 10,000 crore," and that "The mission will make India the fourth nation in the world to launch a Human Spaceflight Mission."
A prototype crew model has already been tested by the ISRO.
Two men and one woman are expected to be sent into space for seven days aboard India's first manned space flight 'Gaganyaan'. The spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km.
GSLV Mk III, the three-stage heavy-lift launch vehicle, will be used to launch Gaganyaan as it has the necessary payload capability.
Three flights will be sent into orbit two unmanned flights and one human spaceflight. The human spaceflight will take 16 minutes to reach the orbit where it will stay for five to seven days
The capsule is expected to orbit the Earth every 90 minutes and the astronauts will be able to witness sunrise and sunset.
The three astronauts can also see India from space twice every 24 hours. They will conduct experiments on microgravity.
The capsule containing three astronauts will take 16 minutes from take-off to reach the desired orbit 400-km from Earth, and while returning will take 36 minutes to reach Earth.
The capsule thermal shield will turn into a ball of flame travelling towards the Earth when they re-enter the atmosphere.
The shield will ensure that the temperature inside the capsule is 25 degrees Celsius, but the astronauts can see the flames just through the window.
After de-boost, the Orbital Module will take 36 minutes to splash down in the Arabian Sea just off the coast of Gujarat where Indian Navy and Coast Guards will be on standby to lift the capsule as soon as it lands on water.
French space agency CNES will share their expertise in the fields of space medicine, astronaut health monitoring, life support, radiation protection, space debris protection and personal hygiene system.