One of India's Gaganyatris will go to space even before Gaganyaan mission, Union Minister reveals

Preparations for India's Gaganyaan mission are in full swing. Now Union Minister Jitendra Singh has said that one of the four Gaganyatris of the Gaganyaan mission will be sent to the International Space Center (ISS) in August. Indian Space Agency ISRO and the US Space Agency NASA will jointly send India's Gaganyatris to the ISS in August.

On Thursday, TMC MP Saugata Roy had asked a question in Parliament, in which Saugata Roy had sought information about Gaganyaan mission in Lok Sabha. In response to this question, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology (Independent Charge) Jitendra Singh said that a member of the crew of the Gaganyaan mission will be sent to the International Space Center as part of a joint exercise between ISRO and NASA. This mission includes both the space agencies as well as a private company Axiom Space. Recently, ISRO had signed an agreement with Axiom Space for space flight.

The joint mission of ISRO-NASA and Axiom can be launched in August. The Gaganyaat will fly to space from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. In February, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly introduced the four Gaganyaat members of the Gaganyaan mission. All four Gaganyaat members are top pilots of the Indian Air Force, including Group Captain Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan, Angad Pratap, and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla. Now one of these four Gaganyaat members has been selected to be sent to the International Space Center.

The Union Minister also informed that the four Gaganyaat members going to space under the Gaganyaan mission are undergoing training at ISRO's Astronaut Training Facility Center in Bangalore and they have completed two out of three semesters of training. The Gaganyaan mission can be launched next year.