Indian astronaut to travel to ISS in joint mission with NASA, says govt

One of the four astronauts undergoing training for the Gaganyan mission will travel to the International Space Station as part of a collaborative effort with NASA, Union Minister Jitendra Singh informed the Lok Sabha.

In a written reply, Singh said NASA has identified a private entity, Axiom Space, and ISRO had signed a Space Flight Agreement with the American firm for the joint mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US last year, President Joe Biden announced that India and the US were collaborating to send an Indian astronaut to the ISS in 2024.

India's Astronaut Selection Board had selected four astronauts from the group of test pilots from the Indian Air Force for the Gaganyaan mission, India's first human space flight planned to take place next year.

"All four astronauts have undergone training on a spaceflight basic module in Russia. Currently, astronauts are undergoing training at ISRO's Astronauts Training Facility (ATF) in Bengaluru for the Gaganyaan Mission," Singh said.

The minister said two out of three semesters of the Gaganyatri training programme have been completed while independent training simulators and static mockup simulators have been realised.

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Sharing an update on the Gaganyaan mission, Singh said ground testing of propulsion systems stages, including solid, liquid and cryogenic engine, towards human rating of the launch vehicle as well as the design and realisation of five types of crew escape system solid motors has been completed.

The Union minister said static testing of all five types of solid motors too has been completed and the first Test Vehicle mission (TV-D1) for performance validation of crew escape system and parachute deployment has been successfully accomplished.

Singh also informed that designs of the crew module and service module structure have been completed and various parachute systems have been tested through integrated main parachute airdrop test and rail track rocket sledge tests.

The ground test programme towards human rating of the Crew Module Propulsion System has been completed and the Service Module Propulsion System test programme is nearing completion, the minister told Lok Sabha.

He said characterization of the Thermal Protection System has been completed.

Critical ground facilities such as Orbital Module Preparation Facility (OMPF), Astronaut Training Facility (ATF) and Oxygen Testing Facility have been operationalized and works on the Mission Control Centre (MCC) facilities and establishment of Ground Station networks were nearing completion, Singh said.

The minister added that the solid and liquid propulsion stages of human-rated launch vehicle were ready for flight integration and the C32 cryogenic stage was nearing completion.

The crew module and service module structure realisation has been completed and flight integration activities were in progress, he added.