Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is progressing well. India’s national space agency completed the first-ever landing of the Vikram lander spacecraft near the moon’s south pole on August 23. On September 2, ISRO launched its first solar probe, Aditya-L1.
And on October 21, ISRO successfully completed the launch abort system. test This is about the Gaganyaan spacecraft, which India hopes will carry three national astronauts on an orbital mission around the Earth by 2026. It’s an ambitious leap from unmanned space missions, but if India succeeds, it will join a club of just three other countries that have sent astronauts. Russia, the United States, and China have astronauts and spacecraft.
“India is the most impressive and exciting space story of the year,” he says rich cooper, Vice President of Communications and Outreach at the Space Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes the space industry and exploration. “In a year full of achievements, India has achieved more than putting its name on the map.”
India’s space program dates back several decades. ISRO launches its first satellite Rohini-1The agency launched satellites on a disciplined budget and later became known for more distant space missions, such as the Mangalyan Mars rover launched in 2013. ISRO also spacecraft to venus A second Mars rover will arrive on Mars in 2025 and in 2024.
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“I think the Indian space program has been under the radar because it has always been well-run, but the stakes were low and the budgets were low,” he says. Laura Folczyk, a space industry analyst and founder of the consulting firm Astralytical. But since “successful landings of landers and rovers on the moon have only been achieved by very few countries around the world,” IRSO’s ambitions are clearly set in motion with the Vikram landing. She says it’s accelerating.
And even countries that have done it so far sometimes stumble. In 1957, Russia launched its first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into orbit, and four years later sent the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space. But in 2023, around the same time India was celebrating Vikram’s success, Russia’s Luna 25 mission failed to make a soft landing on the moon.
Cooper said India’s progress has not been in isolation and has been studying the successes and failures of Russia, the United States and China’s space programs since the beginning. “There are lessons from over 60 years of human spaceflight, and India has been a great student of those lessons,” he says. “They did more than just their homework.”
The Gaganyaan mission will proceed similarly to NASA’s Artemis mission, with multiple systems and spacecraft tests being conducted before the first humans board the rocket. The first unmanned test flight, Gaganyaan-1, is scheduled for sometime in 2024, and the second, Gaganyaan-2, in 2025.
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Gaganyaan-3 in 2026 aims to carry three Indian astronauts in Earth orbit for three days. From there, ISRO hopes to build a space station by 2035 and send Indian astronauts to the moon by 2040. According to a cosmology professor at the University of North Dakota, this is a well-known expansion method. michael dodge, was proposed by Wernher von Braun, a Nazi rocket scientist who was the architect of NASA’s Apollo program. “Historically, this is a strategy that has been around for a very long time, and India seems to be pursuing it in a very systematic way,” Dodge said.
Whether the schedule for expanding India’s space program can be maintained is another matter. Forchik noted that Gaganyaan 1 was scheduled to launch in 2020, but faced both the coronavirus and delays typical of complex human spaceflight programs. She believes that ISRO may take more time and money than expected and that Gaganyaan-1 will probably not be launched until 2025.
But will a manned mission become a reality by 2026? “I think it’s completely possible,” Forchik said.As for Russia influence declinesand the rise of China, India’s close rival, the manned Gaganyaan project is “a means of enhancing their own standing in the world.”
Dodge points out that national prestige has always been part of space exploration, going back to the original space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. But that prestige has two components to it, “one of which is his technological prowess, being able to prove to the world that he is part of the elite, and his ability to exploit and explore space.” ” he says. “But the other thing is the geopolitical overlay.”
In contrast to India’s anti-satellite missile test in 2019, Forchik is excited about ISRO’s plan because it is a peaceful way for India to enhance its national and geopolitical prestige. That means there is. The success of India’s civilian space program could serve as a model for other countries aiming to become a 21st century space power.
“What we’re going to see is a lot more countries that historically haven’t played a big role in space ascent, because they’re going to use it as a way to demonstrate their technology and technological progress. Because we think about it,” Folchik said. “A peaceful demonstration of progress.”
