India’s Gaganyaan test mission set for December, says Shubhanshu Shukla

India will be planning to make a historic step in the field of human spaceflight as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that its first test flight of the Gaganyaan mission will be taking off this December. This was announced by the ISRO Chief V Narayanan and asserted by the astronaut trainee Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who expressed his belief in the national preparedness to launch this challenge.

Shukla spoke about his experiences on the recent Ax-4 mission and the value of international cooperation and how spaceflight can be inspiring to young people. Speaking of the bigger picture, he added that India is already on the path to not only Gaganyaan but also the other projects like the Bharatiya Antariksh Station and even a landing on the moon by 2040.

Human spaceflight, according to Shukla, has lessons that go well beyond science and technology. He shared the moment when talking to children, as they were eager to become astronauts, and it is a good indication of the effect of the mission. He also emphasised that conducting such missions will be a gainful experience in future space projects of India.

Looking back at the Ax-4 mission, Shukla said it was a demonstration of how astronauts and space controllers of different countries worked hand-in-hand, which is a testament to the unifying power of space exploration. Fellow astronaut trainee Group Captain P Balakrishnan Nair echoed the same, saying that India is finally ready to fly into space.

The four Indian astronauts will restart their Gaganyaan training in October. In the interim, materials collected during recent space experiments have already been delivered to research centres, and scientists are trying to improve on the designs that will be used in future missions. When the test flight is planned in the month of December, the ISRO's ambitious human spaceflight programme will provide the foundation for India's long-run space exploration vision.