The Indian Human Spaceflight Programme (or the Gaganyaan programme) is an ongoing project by ISRO to develop the technology needed to launch crewed spacecraft into low Earth orbit. Before the Gaganyaan programme announcement in August 2018, human spaceflight was not a priority for ISRO, though related technologies have been developed since 2007, and it performed a Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment and a Pad Abort Test for the programme. In December 2018, the Indian government approved a further ₹100 billion (US$1.5 billion) for a 7-day crewed flight of 2–3 astronauts. Three uncrewed flights, named Gaganyaan-1, Gaganyaan-2 and Gaganyaan-3 are scheduled to launch in the 2020s, followed by a crewed flight on an HLVM3 rocket. To date, mission has been postponed several times until all certification requirements are completed. If completed successfully, India will become the fourth nation to conduct independent human spaceflight after the Soviet Union (Russia), United States, and China. After conducting the first crewed spaceflights, the agency intends to start a space station programme, crewed lunar landings, and crewed interplanetary missions in the long term.
History
Soyuz and early achievement On 3 April 1984, Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian citizen to travel to space on board Soyuz T-11 as part of the Interkosmos programme, visiting Salyut 7. The mission was launched on board a Soviet rocket and was not part of an independent Indian programme, but it became the starting point for India's manned space adventure. On 9 August 2007, the then Chairman of the ISRO, G. Madhavan Nair, indicated the agency was "seriously considering" the creation of a human spaceflight programme. He further indicated that within a year, ISRO would report on its development of new space capsule technologies. Development of a fully autonomous orbital vehicle to carry a two-member crew into low Earth orbit (LEO) began a few months after that, when the government allocated ₹95 crore (US$9.9 million) for pre-programme initiatives for 2007 through 2008. A crewed orbital spaceflight would require about ₹12,400 crore (US$1.3 billion) and a period of seven years of development. The Planning Commission estimated that a budget of ₹5,000 crore (US$519.2 million) was required for initial work during 2007–2012 for the crewed spaceflight. In February 2009, the Government of India authorised the human space flight programme, but fell short of fully funding or creating it. The trials for crewed space missions began in 2007 with the 600 kg Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE), launched using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket, and safely returned to Earth 12 days later. This was followed by the Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment and the Pad Abort Test in 2018. This enabled the ISRO to develop heat-resistant materials, technology, and procedures necessary for human space travel. As per the memorandum of understanding (MoU), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will provide support for the programme with critical human-centric systems and technologies like space-grade food, crew healthcare, radiation measurement and protection, parachutes for safe recovery of the crew module, and fire suppression systems. The Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) has worked on space food for the crew and has conducted trials on a G-suit for astronauts as well. A prototype called the Advanced Crew Escape Suit weighing 13 kg and built by Sure Safety (India) Private Limited has been tested and performance verified. While the crew module is designed to carry a total of three passengers, the maiden crewed mission may only have one or two crewmembers on board.
Approval of the programme All preliminary tests being successful, the decisive push for the creation of the Human Spaceflight Programme (HSP) took place in 2017, and it was accepted and formally announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 August 2018. The funding is approximately Rs 10,000 crore. The testing phase was expected to begin in December 2020, and the first crewed mission was to be undertaken in December 2021. However, on 11 June 2020, it was announced that the overall schedule for the Gaganyaan launches had been postponed due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, in turn revising the timetable for the HSP. As of December 2022, the first uncrewed test flight is scheduled to launch no earlier than mid-2024, with the uncrewed second and crewed third flights to follow afterward. As per ISRO, the initial review process is complete for food, potable water, emergency first aid kits, and health monitoring systems for the Gaganyaan programme through 16 March 2021. ISRO and the CNES joint working group on the HSP are collaborating on space medicine for the programme. India has also maintained long-standing space relationship with Russia, like examples of international friendship and cooperations with ROSCOSMOS. Four new Indian astronauts for the first human mission trained at Russia's Yuri Gagarin cosmonaut training center, experts were dispatched to the center for an exchange program, and the two countries have an agreement for developing the mission's technology.
Progress in personal affairs On 4 August 2024, ISRO, NASA and SpaceX announced that an Indian astronaut, Shubhanshu Shukla, would serve as a pilot on board Axiom Mission 4, a private Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS). He became the second-ever Indian to travel to space, first Indian space tourist, with the express goal of gaining experience for future ISRO missions. The mission was launched on 25 June 2025. At the 9th meeting of the India-USA Civil Space Joint Working Group, proposal for future Gaganyaan Docking to the International Space Station and joint development of EVA and EMU suits as well as ccollaborations in Space medicine and LEO and lunar mission management control are expected to be discussed.
Spacecraft development
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