Gaganyaan

Gaganyaan (from Sanskrit: gagana, "celestial" and yāna, "craft, vehicle") is an Indian crewed orbital spacecraft intended to be the formative spacecraft of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme. The spacecraft is being designed to carry three people, and a planned upgraded version will be equipped with rendezvous and docking capabilities. In its maiden crewed mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)'s largely autonomous 5.3-metric ton capsule will orbit the Earth at 400 km altitude for up to seven days with a two- or three-person crew on board. The first crewed mission was originally planned to be launched on ISRO's LVM3 in December 2021, But this has since been delayed to no earlier than 2025. The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)-manufactured crew module underwent its first uncrewed experimental flight on 18 December 2014. , design of the crew module has been completed. Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will provide support for critical human-centric systems and technologies such as space-grade food, crew healthcare, radiation measurement and protection, parachutes for the safe recovery of the crew module, and the fire suppression system. On June 11, 2020, it was announced that the first uncrewed Gaganyaan launch would be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India.The overall timeline for crewed launches was expected to remain unaffected. ISRO chairman S. Somanath announced on June 30, 2022, that the first crewed mission will not take place until 2024 at the earliest because of safety concerns. However, a source in April 2023 suggested that ISRO was aiming for a 2025 launch. Preliminary studies and technological development of Gaganyaan started in 2006 under the generic name "Orbital Vehicle". The plan was to design a simple capsule with an endurance of about a week in space, a capacity of two astronauts, and a splashdown landing after re-entry. The project was commissioned in 2007, with expected completion by 2024 and a budget of around ₹10,000 crore.