Gaganyaan Mission is Gaining Pace, ISRO Begins Assembly of Human-Rated Launch Vehicle

India has made considerable progress in space-related missions in the last few years. In this series, preparations are being made by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to make the Gaganyaan mission successful. ISRO has started assembling the Human Rated Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (HLVM3) for this mission. This assembly is being done at ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Center in Andhra Pradesh.

This is the beginning of the first uncrewed mission under the country’s ambitious Gaganyaan Human Spaceflight Mission. ISRO has started assembling the S200 Solid Rocket Motor with stacking of nozzle end segments. HLVM3 is specifically designed for human spaceflight. This is an advanced version of the LVM3 rocket. Its height is approximately 53 meters and weight is approximately 640 tons. This three-stage rocket can carry a load of about 10 tonnes to low earth orbit. It features a human-rated design as well as a Crew Escape System (CES) to ensure safe ejection of the crew module in case of a malfunction during return.

India also plans to build its own station in space. Last week, Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh had said that the name of this station will be “Bharat Space Station”. It can be established by 2035. He had said, “Our own space station is going to be built. It will be called India Space Station. It will be built by 2035. We can land an Indian on the Moon by 2040.” Regarding the country’s first human space flight mission Gaganyaan, Singh said that by the beginning of 2026, the first Indian astronaut will travel to space under this mission. In the last decade, India has launched 397 foreign satellites from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

Recently, ISRO chief, S Somanath had said that several uncrewed test flights will be conducted before the country’s astronaut mission to space. ISRO is taking full caution regarding the preparation of Gaganyaan mission. With the launch of this mission, India will become the fourth country after America, Russia and China to send astronauts to space. In this mission, one or two astronauts will be taken to Low Earth Orbit about 400 kilometers above the Earth.