The Cabinet today cleared India’s first human space flight programme, also known as Gaganyaan. As part of the Gaganyaan programme, the Indian Space Research Organisation plans to send a three-member crew to space for seven days by 2022.

The mission Gaganyaan would cost about Rs 10,000 crore to the government.
In his Independence day speech this year, PM Narendra Modi had vowed to send an Indian in space by 2022.

India has already inked agreements with Russia and France for assistance in the ambitious project.

In August this year, ISRO Chairman K Sivan and Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space Jitendra Singh had said that GSLV Mk III, the three-stage heavy-lift launch vehicle, will be used to launch Gaganyaan as it has the necessary payload capability.

The spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km.

Sivan said that under the Gaganyaan schedule, three flights will be sent into orbit.

“Of the three, there will be two unmanned flights and one human spaceflight. The human spaceflight will take 16 minutes to reach the orbit where it will stay for five to seven days,” Sivan said, adding that after de-boost, the Orbital Module will take 36 minutes to splash down in the Arabian Sea.

“The crew module will be recovered within 15-20 days,” he said.

GSLV Mk III

GSLV-Mk III is a three-stage heavy lift vehicle with two solid motor strap-ons (S200), a liquid propellant core stage (L110) and a cryogenic stage (C25). It is capable of launching 4 ton class of satellites to Geosynchronous Transfer orbit (GTO).