New Delhi:
The year 2018 has seen some immense growth and path-breaking developments in the arena of space. To add another feather to its cap, ISRO's much-anticipated Gaganyaan mission has been cleared by the Union Cabinet on Friday. Under the indigenous human spaceflight programme – Gaganyaan - a three-member crew will be sent to space for at least seven days by the year 2022. The project, which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech this year, will cost a whopping amount of Rs 10,000 crore. India has already inked agreements with Russia and France for assistance in the ambitious project.
As India is waiting eagerly for this much-anticipated Gaganyaan mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), here we bring you 10 interesting facts which you might not know about this human spaceflight programme.
1. A human rated GSLV Mk-lll will carry the orbital module to ensure sustention of the 3-member crew for seven days.
2. About 16 minutes after lift-off, the rocket will inject the orbital vehicle into an orbit 300 to 400 km above Earth. The capsule would return for a splashdown in the Arabian Sea near the Gujarat coastline as a primary recovery location.
3. Gaganyaan Mission is expected to establish a broader framework for collaboration between ISRO, academia, industry, national agencies and other scientific organisations.
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4. The much-anticipated programme by the Indian space agency may generate employment and train human resources in advanced technologies.
5. This will allow pooling in of diverse technological and industrial capabilities and enable broader participation in research opportunities and technology development benefiting large number of students and researchers.
6. Scientists say Gaganyaan has huge potential to spinoff technologies in areas such as medicine, agriculture, industrial safety, pollution, waste management, water and food resource management etc.
7. Gaganyaan will also provide a unique micro-gravity platform in space for conducting experiments and test bed for future technologies.
8. Gaganyaan, which will be the first Human Spaceflight Programme (HSP) of India is targeted to complete within 40 months from the day of inception.
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9. ISRO has already performed a Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment and a Pad Abort Test for the much-awaited mission.
10. Apart from the manned flight, two unmanned flights will be also undertaken as part the Programme.
In 2018, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has performed as many as 17 successful launch with GSAT-7A, the 35th communication satellite of India being the last one to be lifted off on December 19.
