Gaganyaan, space station will ensure India's continued presence in space: K Sivan

India's maiden manned space mission, Gaganyaan, and a planned space station project will eventually ensure the country's continued presence in space. This was the future as projected by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K Sivan here on Wednesday.

Sivan articulated this plan before a big group of global space agency officials, who had converged for a three-day symposium on “Human Spaceflight and Exploration: Present challenges and future trends.”

Having set this goal, Sivan's message to the international community was clear: Isro wants to build long-term partnerships with seasoned players in the space sector for the greater common good. At the national level, Gaganyaan has already built a network, pooling the resources of multiple laboratories, academia, and industry.

On the need for an Indian space station, Sivan said one International Space Station (ISS) put up by multiple countries may be inadequate. China has already announced its intention to build one of its own. But Gaganyaan, while being a technology demonstrator, will focus on regional needs such as food, water, and energy security.

Sivan was confident that the Gaganyaan mission can meet the 2022 deadline. ISRO, he said, has proven systems for capsule recovery, re-entry of the capsule into the earth atmosphere and even crew escape systems.

The launcher's mettle has also been proved, while human life science and support systems necessary for the mission are now under development. Space-qualified parachutes are part of the recovery system mastered by ISRO.

In the long term, the success of the Gaganyaan mission will help Isro's goal of interplanetary mission, Sivan said.

On the four Indian Air Force (IAF) shortlisted for the mission, he said their training in Russia will commence in the third week of January. Rakesh Sharma had become India's first man in space in 1984. But he was aboard a Russian module. This time, as Sivan said, the chosen astronauts will be in an Indian module launched from India.

Sharma was part of the Soyuz T-11 mission that was launched from the erstwhile Soviet Union on April 2, 1984, under the Intercosmos programme.

Emphasising the need for space collaborations, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, K Vijay Raghavan said they are essential to combat challenges such as climate change globally.

Chandrayaan-3 progressing

On the country's third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3, Sivan said the work is progressing at full speed. This mission, planned after the failure of Chandrayaan-2 to make a soft-landing on the lunar surface, has been scheduled for 2021.