Gaganyaan

the human functions there (in space). It will check whether the system is right.”

“This will be very useful to simulate, as if a human is flying,” he added. Vyomamitra, a combination of two Sanskrit words Vyoma ( s pace) and Mitra (friend), took the crowd gathered at the event by surprise with an introduction. “Hello, everyone. I am Vyomamitra, the prototype of the half-humanoid, been made for the first unmanned Gaganyaan mission,” the robot said.

Under Gaganyaan’s human spaceflight mission, which is expected to cost ₹10,000 crore, India is expected to send astronauts, all Indian Air Force pilots, to the low earth orbit, an earthcentred orbit with an altitude of 2,000km where most of the manmade objects in outer space are placed.

The astronauts, whose identities are not known, will likely begin their training in Russia from the third week of January.

In Russia, the astronauts will receive physical fitness training in different types of environments to help them acclimatise to travelling in space. “The astronauts will undergo the physical fitness training in Russia for 11 months, after which they will receive module specific training in India. In that, they will train in the crew and service module designed by us, learn to operate it, work around it, do simulations,” Sivan told HT last week.

India’s heaviest launch vehicle, the GSLV Mark III, referred to as “Bahubali”, will carry the module with astronauts to space. It has been redesigned to have a four-metre payload faring (the top of a launch vehicle where the spacecraft is housed). The mission will take off from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.