New Budget prioritises India’s human spaceflight, will conduct its first unmanned launch by the year end

[INS_Vikrant]

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has made sure that Indian astronauts will have a shot at being in space and orbiting the planet by next year in the Budget 2021-22.

India’s first human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, is estimated to be a year behind schedule due to the impact of COVID-19. The mission is required to clear two uncrewed missions before human testing can begin. Sitharaman has promised that at least one is likely to take place before the end of the yearyear.
“As a part of the Gaganyaan mission activities, four Indian astronauts are being trained on Generic Space Flight aspects in Russia. The first unmanned launch is slated for December 2021,” she said during her speech.
While this is encouraging news for India's ambitions to explore space, other missions — like Chandrayaan-3 for exploring the Moon, Shukrayaan headed to Venus and Mangalyaan-2 to Mars — did not make it into the Finance Minister’s address.

ISRO takes up one mission at a time
According to space expert Chaitanya Giri, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is not in the habit of pursuing more than one mission at a time.

Even at the time of Chandrayaan, the same team that worked on the payloads for Mangalyaan.
Modi’s word against the rest of the world
The reason Gaganyaan trumps others is because Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave his word in 2018 that the mission would take place before India’s 75th year of independence. A timeline that has now been disrupted due to COVID-19.

With the first uncrewed launch will take place in December 2021, the actual manned mission is expected to take place well into 2022.

The astronauts training to go into space have spent over a year in Russia. At home, the space capsule is ready as well.

Budget 2021-22 prioritises Gaganyaan, India’s human spaceflight mission, over all others — here’s why

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman declared that India’s first human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, will conduct its first unmanned launch by the end of

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