Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

http://www.leonarddavid.com/indias-astro...in-russia/

EXCERPTS: Four Indian astronauts continue to undergo training at Russia’s Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow. They are prospective space travelers for India’s Gaganyaan project. According to Russia’s Roscosmos, the foursome “are doing well and are determined to continue training further.” The completion of their training at the center is scheduled for the first quarter of 2021.

[...] India has been pressing forward with its human spaceflight program - although the pandemic has taken its toll on schedule. When the Gaganyaan spacecraft flies with crew, up to three astronauts are expected to take part in a 7-day mission... (MORE - details) .... RELATED: India’s Human Spaceflight Program Moves Forward

4 Astronauts Identified For Manned Mission Gaganyaan (Jan, 2020)


India's manned program (one year ago)

The four Indian astronauts have graduated from Russian cosmonaut training.

The Indian plan seem to be to fly an unmanned test flight of their Gaganyaan capsule by the end of the year, but they sound increasingly doubtful that it will happen that quickly because of covid delays.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city...055370.cms

https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/...2021-06-07

The first unmanned Gaganyaan test flight has been pushed back to no earlier than June 2022, due to impact of covid lockdowns on preparations in India. They plan two unmanned test flights before they attempt to fly humans in this thing.

The first uncrewed test flight of Gaganyaan appears to have been pushed back to Q1 2023. (The Indian Starliner, it appears.) And the second uncrewed test flight is penciled in for Q4 2023. Which suggests that the first crewed flight won't come until 2024.

But in a sense the uncrewed flights won't be uncrewed. There will be a woman astronaut aboard named Vyommitra. She is a humanoid robot that will carry sensors and instruments to determine physical conditions on a human body. She will be capable of movement and able to perform tasks. Apparently while other countries have sent animals to space before humans to test out survivability, that offends Hindu sensibilities so they went with the robot instead. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyommitra

(ISRO photo)

India's first crewed spaceflight in an Indian-designed and built Gaganyaan vehicle was originally planned for 2021. Then 2022. Then 2023. Apparently they are now shooting for 2025. (And that is likely to slip.)

But they are still working on it. They have been conducting parachute tests and ocean recovery tests (ISRO photo below).

There are reports that India is in talks with NASA about an Indian astronaut flying to the Space Station later in 2024. No details have been revealed and may not have been decided yet. It's still unclear if the Indian would fly on a contracted Commercial Crew flight, or whether it would be a private Axiom flight. If it's Commercial Crew, unknown if it would be a Dragon or a Starliner flight.

India has four astronauts. Three are slated to fly in Gaganyaan in 2025. This ISS proposal seems to be for the fourth astronaut to procede the others into space, in an American capsule.

It may or may not be significant that India seems to be moving away from their traditional cooperation with Russia towards greater cooperation with the US.

https://spacenews.com/nasa-and-isro-cont...ht-to-iss/

In Gaganyaan news, India says that they hope to fly an uncrewed test flight of their crew capsule in July 2024, in preparation for the first crewed flight next year. Remains to be seen whether the July flight happens or gets pushed back. But India is still busily at work developing a national crew launch capability. (Something Europe still doesn't have.)

https://spacenews.com/india-targets-uncr...t-in-2025/