Four Indian cosmonauts complete training in Russia for Gaganyaan mission

The Rs 10,000-crore ambitious project is expected to be launched in 2022

The four astronauts shortlisted for India's first manned space mission, Gaganyaan, have completed their full-fledged training at Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in the Star City. The four, all Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots, had arrived in Russia in February 2020.

Scheduled for a 2022 launch by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), the Rs 10,000-crore Gaganyaan project is gearing up to meet the deadline fixed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi: Months before the 75th Independence Day.

The completion of the training was first reported by Russian agency Sputnik which quoted the Telegram post of Dmitry Rogozin, the General Director of the Russsian State State Corporation Roscosmos.

“In the evening we met with Indian gaganauts who had completed their training at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. We also discussed with the (Indian) ambassador the future bilateral space projects,”Rogozin informed in his post.

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Besides the ambassador D B Venkatesh Varma, the meeting was also attended by representatives of Roscosmos subsidiaries.

Isro's Manned Space Flight Centre and Glavkosmos, a part of Roscosmos, had signed an agreement for the training of the shortlisted Indian gaganauts on June 27, 2019. The training had commenced as planned on February 10, 2020.

After a pause in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the training was resumed in May. Under training, the gaganauts had to rehearse operations during an emergency landing of a descent capsule in various climatic and geographic conditions.

They also had undertake flights aboard an Il-76MDK plane designed to simulate short-term zero gravity modes and other emergencies. Studying Russian language, the design, layout and systems of the Soyuz transport manned spacecraft was also part of the training.

Once back in India, the gaganauts are expected to continue further training at the Bengaluru-based Institute of Aviation Medicine, the Army Sports Institute in Pune and the Institute of Naval Medicine in Mumbai.

Preparing for the Gaganyaan mission, Isro is required to undertake two unmanned missions, both carrying a humanoid. A prototype of the humanoid, Vyommitra was showcased in Bengaluru last year. The manned mission will see the fully trained gaganauts spend seven days in the crew capsule in a low-earth orbit.