Mission Gaganyaan: Encouraging participation by private sector, says govt

The government is encouraging private sector and start-ups to contribute to Mission Gaganyaan and provide assistance in hardware realization, components supply, health monitoring devices, and virtual reality simulators, the Ministry of Space informed the Parliament on Wednesday.

 

Jitendra Singh, Minister of Science and Technology was responding to an unstarred question raised by Member of Parliament Sajda Ahmed in the Lok Sabha.

 

Gaganyaan Mission's goal is to test the capacity of sending mankind into low earth orbit using space vehicles and safely returning them to Earth.

 

At the start of the second half of 2022, ISRO will undertake a test vehicle flight to validate the 'Crew Escape System' performance, as well as Gaganyaan's maiden uncrewed mission.

 

The receipt of Gaganyaan deliverables against contracts with M/s. Glavkosmos in Russia and CNES, France has already commenced, the ministry said.

 

ISRO has signed up Russian launch service provider Glavkosmos for selection support, medical examination and space training of Indian astronauts. Glavkosmos will help ISRO's Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) select candidates for space flight. It will also carry out the medical examination of the candidates and train them for their journey to space.

 

The ministry further said that the astronaut training facility has been commissioned in Bengaluru. The design of all systems and sub-systems for Mission Gaganyaan has been completed, and a long duration qualification test of human-rated cryogenic engine and first phase testing of human-rated VIKAS Engine has been concluded.

 

"Proof of concept demonstration for a ground network with service providers completed. Construction of integration facility for Orbital module preparation is nearing completion. While the design of various human centric products has been completed, various prototypes are under realization," the ministry said in a written reply.

 

India's human space mission, which is one of the pet projects of ISRO, is estimated to cost around Rs 10,000 crore.