India’s Space Roadmap 2047 – Gaganyaan

Today we take a look at the third layer of the Roadmap – Gaganyaan, India’s Human Spaceflight programme.

ISRO has posted several updates related to various hardware testing of the Gaganyaan components.

The Gaganyaan missions will initially be unmanned, followed by missions to Low Earth Orbit with the eventual goal of establishing an Indian Space Station.

The Artemis Accords will pave the way for human missions to the Moon after gaining experience in Low Earth Orbit.

Technologies for planetary habitation is somewhere in the realm between science fiction and early technology demonstration of these technologies on analog stations on Earth.

It will require the development of a heavy launcher to send larger structures to Low Earth orbit to build the Indian Space Station and to reduce the time needed (from more than a month to a few days) to send a spacecraft to the Moon. ISRO has a heavy launcher plan on the drawing boards at this stage.

It will also need to develop a module (similar to the Russian Progress or SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon) that could carry payload to the Indian Space Station or even the Artemis Gateway.