India’s Human Spaceflight Mission ‘Gaganyaan’ will be delayed, says ISRO Chief Dr K Sivan

Space agency chief K Sivan addressed the press with the information that there is a likelihood of delay in India’s human space flight mission Gaganyaan. The cause of the delay has been cited as owing to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. ISRO will resumes rocket launch activities from the first week of November.

Though it was scheduled for August 2022, the ISRO chairman said that owing to Covid-19’s impact on the operations, there will be a slight slip in meeting the mission’s target date.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his Independence Day speech on 15 August 2018, had said when the nation is celebrating 75th year of Independence in 2022, an Indian son or daughter will be flying into space under the Gaganyaan mission.

Sivan said that the Gaganyaan mission has advanced well and the country is taking the help of other space-faring nations like Russia for training the astronauts and some other critical aspects, France in the space medical area and is also approaching US space agency NASA.

On resuming rocket launches, he said some missions were delayed as officials were unable to travel to the rocket port from different cities.

Sivan said ISRO is planning to launch its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C49 (PSLV C49) during the first week of November.

The PSLV C49 rocket will fly with RISAT-2BR2 as the main passenger and about several other third party satellites for a fee.

According to Sivan, international cooperation is the hallmark of India’s space activities.

The country has signed about 250 collaboration agreements with about 59 nations.

He said India’s international collaborations are a mix-some for getting advanced technologies and some are for helping other space faring nations and pointed out training 60 persons from 23 nations in building nano-satellites.