Gaganyaan Mission: See who's behind ISRO's next space mission

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to launch its first test flight for the Gaganyaan mission on October 21 between 7 am and 9 am. This will be one of the many test missions that ISRO has planned before the actual mission. Although Gaganyaan will be a human spaceflight mission, the test flight will be an unmanned one.

As ISRO begins its Gaganyaan journey, it’s important to credit the team and people behind the whole project. The Gaganyaan mission was first announced in 2018 and since then, there have been several members working on the project.

Some of the people working behind the upcoming tests and the main Gaganyaan mission include S Somnath, S Unnikrishnan Nair, and VR Lalithabika.

S Somnath is the current Chairman of ISRO, Unnikrishnan Nair is the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, and VR Lalithambika is a senior scientist working at ISRO.

Apart from these key personalities, there are many other scientists working behind the Gaganyaan mission. ISRO is yet to reveal the exact list of everyone. However, ISRO is expected to reveal more details about the team as we move closer to the actual manned Gaganyaan space flight.

Earlier this year, ISRO selected four astronauts, who, back in 2020, went for training in Russia at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre. These astronauts are still under training in India.

It is worth noting that the Gaganyaan spaceflight will carry only three astronauts out of the shortlisted ones. The scientists working behind and the astronauts together will be completing the Gaganyaan project.

October 21’s test mission’s main objective is to demonstrate the Crew Escape System (CES). This will give the scientists an understanding of the system performs before the actual mission.