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ISRO Chief V Narayanan
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman V Narayanan on Thursday disclosed that 90 per cent of the work on Gaganyaan, India's first human spaceflight mission, has been completed.
ISRO Chief reveals development on Gaganyaan
“The Gaganyaan mission is going on very well. A lot of technological development has to take place. Number one the rocket has to be human rated, the life support system, the crew escape system and of course human centric products. I can say today that approximately 90% of the development work has been completed,” Mr. Narayanan told reporters in Bengaluru.
He added that the crewed mission to launch the Indian astronauts into space will take place in 2027, and before that, ISRO will undertake three uncrewed missions.
“Three uncrewed missions have to be accomplished, the first uncrewed mission with the humanoid Vyomitra is expected to take flight by the end of this year. We want to accomplish the crewed mission by 2027,” he said.
The Gaganyaan project contemplates the demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of three members to an orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission and bringing them back safely to Earth by landing in the Indian sea waters.
On the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite launched on July 30, 2025, the ISRO Chief said that the satellite is healthy and it would be declared operational in another 10-15 days.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the event to promote the November 3-5 scheduled Emerging Science, Technology, and Innovation Conclave (ESTIC-2025) in New Delhi, Narayanan stressed the safety of the astronauts being crucial while undertaking the main crewed mission, which is now scheduled for the first quarter of 2027.
“Safety of astronauts in space is crucial and thus each test is being extensively conducted…a lot of technology development has to take place – the rocket has to be human-rated, the orbital module has to be developed, and the environmental control safety system has to be developed. Then coming to the crew escape system, parachute system and then, of course, there are the human-centric products,” he said.
ISRO completed the first integrated air drop test for Gaganyaan at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on August 24. It was a successful demonstration of the critical parachute-based deceleration system of the crew module for the Gaganyaan mission.
In a simulated rehearsal of the splashdown when the astronauts return to Earth post the mission, a module was lifted off using a helicopter to an altitude of three kilometres and released before deploying nine parachutes for a successful splashdown in the Bay of Bengal, he explained.
Narayanan added that work on the next-generation launchers is ongoing, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set targets to work on the crewed lunar mission.
“We are in the conceiving phase and design phase for a lift off mass of 75,000-80,000Kg. This will have three stage rockets, to take man to Moon and bring them back safely,” he said, adding that work to launch the first module of Bharatiya Antriksh Station (BAS), India’s first space station weighing 52 tonnes, is on and is scheduled for 2028.
Initially, India’s indigenous satellite navigation system, Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC), faced some challenges, but those have now been resolved, the Chief shared.
A total of seven satellites are needed to complete the constellation and facilitate the navigation satellite system. “Of this, four are in orbit and three more need to be launched. The first of the three will be launched before the end of this financial year and within the next one and a half years. The remaining will be launched in a gap of six months each,” he said.
Narayanan said the Indian government had approved Chandrayaan-4 to bring back samples from the lunar soil and environment.
While designing activities are ongoing, approval has also been obtained for Chandrayaan-5, the Lunar Pole Exploration (Lupex) mission in collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).