<p>Chennai: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to conduct three crewed missions, including sending a robot to space, to test the systems before launching Gaganyaan, the country’s first human spaceflight programme, the agency chief Dr V Narayanan said here on Monday. </p><p>Narayanan, who spoke to reporters at the Chennai Airport on his way to Sriharikota for the launch of NISAR on July 30, said the ISRO is working hard to ensure that the Gaganyaan mission is launched by March 2027 as per the schedule. </p>.ISRO successfully completes development of Service Module Propulsion System for Gaganyaan.<p>“We have planned to conduct three uncrewed missions and the first will be launched in December this year when we will send a humanoid to space. The robot will be called Vyommitra and if the mission is successful, we will launch two other crew missions in 2026 before the launch in 2027,” Narayanan added.</p>.<p>The ISRO chief said Indian Air Force (IAF) Group Captain Shubanshu Shukla’s journey to the International Space Station (ISS) and back to earth will be very useful for the agency in planning the Gaganyaan mission.</p>.Earth looks one from space, no border exists: Shubhanshu Shukla's quote featured in new NCERT book.<p>“Shukla was chosen by us and sent to the US for a 10-month training. The experiences of Rakesh Sharma who went to space in 1985 has been helping us till now and our knowledge on space is now richer with Shukla’s journey,” he added. </p><p>Speaking about the delay in the Ax-04 mission that took Shukla and three others to the ISS, Narayanan said if not for ISRO engineers who realised the magnitude of the liquid oxygen system leaking in the propulsion system, the mission would not have been successful.</p>.'Being still is a challenge': Shubhanshu Shukla shares video of 'floating' inside International Space Station.<p>“It was Axiom Space which detected the leak, but they said it was minor. It was ISRO which put its foot down to say the mission cannot proceed without rectifying it. If the mission had proceeded without getting the leak rectified, it would have ended in a failure. ISRO played a very crucial role,” he added.</p><p>NISAR, an ambitious joint mission by NASA and ISRO aimed at measuring Earth’s changing ecosystems, dynamic surfaces, and ice masses -- which provides information about biomass, natural hazards, and groundwater – will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 30.</p><p>NISAR carries two radars: the L-band radar developed by ISRO and the S-band radar by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The entire system was integrated and tested at the U R Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru before being transported to Sriharikota.</p><p>The mission’s objective is to observe Earth’s land and ice-covered surfaces globally with 12-day regularity on ascending and descending passes, effectively sampling Earth every 6 days on average for a baseline three-year mission.</p>
<p>Chennai: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to conduct three crewed missions, including sending a robot to space, to test the systems before launching Gaganyaan, the country’s first human spaceflight programme, the agency chief Dr V Narayanan said here on Monday. </p><p>Narayanan, who spoke to reporters at the Chennai Airport on his way to Sriharikota for the launch of NISAR on July 30, said the ISRO is working hard to ensure that the Gaganyaan mission is launched by March 2027 as per the schedule. </p>.ISRO successfully completes development of Service Module Propulsion System for Gaganyaan.<p>“We have planned to conduct three uncrewed missions and the first will be launched in December this year when we will send a humanoid to space. The robot will be called Vyommitra and if the mission is successful, we will launch two other crew missions in 2026 before the launch in 2027,” Narayanan added.</p>.<p>The ISRO chief said Indian Air Force (IAF) Group Captain Shubanshu Shukla’s journey to the International Space Station (ISS) and back to earth will be very useful for the agency in planning the Gaganyaan mission.</p>.Earth looks one from space, no border exists: Shubhanshu Shukla's quote featured in new NCERT book.<p>“Shukla was chosen by us and sent to the US for a 10-month training. The experiences of Rakesh Sharma who went to space in 1985 has been helping us till now and our knowledge on space is now richer with Shukla’s journey,” he added. </p><p>Speaking about the delay in the Ax-04 mission that took Shukla and three others to the ISS, Narayanan said if not for ISRO engineers who realised the magnitude of the liquid oxygen system leaking in the propulsion system, the mission would not have been successful.</p>.'Being still is a challenge': Shubhanshu Shukla shares video of 'floating' inside International Space Station.<p>“It was Axiom Space which detected the leak, but they said it was minor. It was ISRO which put its foot down to say the mission cannot proceed without rectifying it. If the mission had proceeded without getting the leak rectified, it would have ended in a failure. ISRO played a very crucial role,” he added.</p><p>NISAR, an ambitious joint mission by NASA and ISRO aimed at measuring Earth’s changing ecosystems, dynamic surfaces, and ice masses -- which provides information about biomass, natural hazards, and groundwater – will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 30.</p><p>NISAR carries two radars: the L-band radar developed by ISRO and the S-band radar by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The entire system was integrated and tested at the U R Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru before being transported to Sriharikota.</p><p>The mission’s objective is to observe Earth’s land and ice-covered surfaces globally with 12-day regularity on ascending and descending passes, effectively sampling Earth every 6 days on average for a baseline three-year mission.</p>