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Why Has ISRO Delayed Gaganyaan Astronaut Mission To 2026?

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India’s plan to launch its astronauts to space has been delayed by a year. The timeline for Gaganyaan has been pushed to 2026 as ISRO is working on ensuring that the trips to space are completely safe. During a recent event in New Delhi, ISRO Chairman Dr. S Somanath revealed what the mission team has in mind and what is causing the delay.

Why Gaganyaan has been delayed

Chairman Somanath said that the delay is owing to the extreme caution that ISRO is taking to ensure the safety of astronauts. He also said that there are complex systems that need to be developed without any flaws to ensure a safe trip.

Under Gaganyaan, ISRO will launch a crew of three Indian nationals to the low-Earth orbit (400 km). They will return after spending three days in space. The candidates for the mission, who underwent extensive year-long training in Russia, were introduced in February.

“I don’t want what happened to the Boeing Starliner, so we should be very careful,” Dr. Somanath said. He was referring to the failed Boeing mission which got stretched from eight days after its launch in June to eight months, extending NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore’s stay on the International Space Station (ISS) to February 2025.

ALSO SEE: ISRO Gets Record Funding Of Over $2.5 Billion; Here’s How Much Is For Chandrayaan-4 And Gaganyaan

Dr. Somanath also said that his team is developing the complex Gaganyaan systems “through a systematic process.”

Earlier this year, reports said ISRO might conduct the first uncrewed flight test for Gaganyaan in late 2024, but there is no official confirmation yet. In September, the Central government gave a major boost to the program with an additional allocation of Rs 11,170 crore for the missions. The total amount of over Rs 20,000 crore will cover the costs of test flights as well as the development of the LVM3 heavy lift rocket.

Interestingly, two of the Gaganyaan astronauts – Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla and Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair are currently training in Houston for their ISS mission next year. The two are part of the Axiom mission 1 planned by private US company Axiom Space.

ALSO SEE: Indian Astronauts Take Tour Of Axiom Space Facility As ISS Mission Training Begins; Watch