New Delhi, Feb 28 India has introduced the four Air Force pilots selected for its first human-created space mission, ‘Gaganyaan,’ planned for 2025. The astronauts were presented at an event in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Gaganyaan mission aims to send three astronauts into low Earth orbit for three days in a spacecraft designed and built in India. If successful, it will make India the fourth nation with independent human spaceflight capability after Russia, the United States, and China.
The four astronauts—Group Captains Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan, Angad Pratap, and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla—were selected from a pool of Air Force pilots after rigorous evaluations.
PM Modi said as he congratulated the astronauts.
“These are not just four names or people. Four powers will carry the aspirations of 1.4 billion Indians to space,”
The crew has undergone intense physical training and psychological preparation for over 13 months in Russia and India to prepare them for space.
Gaganyaan has generated huge excitement in India as a demonstration of its technological prowess. The human spaceflight program was announced by PM Modi in 2018 with a budget of ₹90 billion. The first uncrewed mission is planned for late 2024, ahead of the manned flight the following year.
India recently made history by becoming the first country to land near the lunar South Pole with the Chandrayaan-2 mission. It has also launched its first solar observation spacecraft, Aditya-L1. Ambitious plans include a space station by 2035 and a human-crewed lunar mission by 2040.
