The Gaganyaan program is an ongoing project by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to develop and demonstrate India's indigenous human spaceflight capability. The name itself is derived from Sanskrit, translating to "sky vehicle". Preliminary studies for the orbital vehicle began in 2006, but the program gained significant momentum when Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally announced it during his Independence Day address in August 2018. The Union Cabinet approved the program in December 2018, with an initial budget of approximately ₹10,000 crore. The mission's primary objective is to send a crew of three members to a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at an altitude of 400 km for a mission duration of up to three to seven days, and then safely return them to Earth with a splashdown in the Indian sea waters.
The mechanism involves launching the Gaganyaan spacecraft atop a human-rated version of the Launch Vehicle Mark III (LVM3) rocket, designated as HLVM3. The spacecraft consists of two main parts: the Crew Module (CM), which carries the astronauts, and the Service Module (SM), which provides propulsion and power. Critical technologies developed for the mission include the Crew Escape System (CES), which ensures astronaut safety during an emergency, and a parachute-based deceleration system for a safe descent. Before the crewed flight, ISRO plans to conduct multiple uncrewed test flights, including one with a female-featured humanoid robot named Vyommitra. The program connects directly to the establishment of the Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) in Bengaluru, created in January 2019 to spearhead the mission and train the selected astronauts.
The initial target for the crewed mission was 2022, but the timeline has been postponed several times due to factors like the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for extensive testing. As of recent updates, the first crewed flight is now targeted for the first quarter of 2027. The program's scope was recently expanded, with the Union Cabinet approving the development of the BAS-01 Base Module in September 2024, which is part of a revamped program of eight missions scheduled until December 2028. This expansion, which received an additional ₹11,170 crore in funding, is intended to lay the groundwork for a future Bharatiya Antariksh Station by 2035. If successful, India will become the fourth nation, after the Soviet Union (Russia), the United States, and China, to independently conduct a human spaceflight.