ISRO will launch two Gaganyaan missions in 2023, 2nd with robot VyomMitra: Jitendra Singh

Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh has reiterated that India's maiden human spaceflight mission under ISRO's Gaganyaan program is on track for launch in 2024. While the first unmanned flight test flight will launch later this year, the second will involve launching a female figurine 'VyomMitra' in the second half of 2023. 'VyomMitra' will actually be a humanoid robot that will gather crucial spaceflight data to be used later when actual astronauts launch into space. 

The idea behind using a female robot is most likely to find ways to mitigate the effects of spaceflight on women, who are more susceptible to the risks of outer space. This is similar to NASA's idea of sending two female mannequins aboard its Orion spacecraft under the Artemis 1 mission last year. 

Gaganyaan would have launched in 2022: Jitendra Singh

EXCLUSIVE | VIDEO: "India's maiden human space-flight mission 'Gaganyaan' will be launched in 2024. The first test flight will be followed by sending a female-looking spacefaring humanoid robot 'VyomMitra' into outer space in 2nd half of this year": @DrJitendraSingh to @PTI_News pic.twitter.com/Y69lodFTDC

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News)

The Minister said that the plan was to kickstart the Gaganyaan program in India's 75th year of Independence, but the launch was delayed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. "During COVID, our astronauts were training in Russia but that also had to be stopped mid-way. They returned to India and the training resumed when the COVID condition eased. Now the situation is that two of our initial missions will be launched in the second part of the current year; the first is completely unmanned and the second is with a female robot," the MoS said. 

"This is to verify that humans can be sent and brought back safely. The said process will be completed with these two missions and next year, Indians will be sent to space," Singh said, adding that it would be a symbol of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

Earlier this month, ISRO revealed that it has begun the crew capsule recovery process for the Gaganyaan mission at Indian Navy's Water Survival Test Facility (WSTF). Under simulated conditions, the recovery teams trained for recovering the crew capsule that will splash down in Indian waters with three astronauts, who will spend three days in the low-Earth orbit ( at an altitude of 400 kilometers). The Russian space agency Roscosmos has played a huge role in the Gaganyaan program by training future Indian astronauts at its Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Moscow under an MoU signed with ISRO in 2018.