Union Cabinet approves budget for Gaganyaan project

The Union Cabinet has approved a budget of Rs 10,000 crore for India’s Gaganyaan project. The allocation of the budget comes after the announcement of Prime Minister that, an Indian would travel to space in an Indian spacecraft by 2022 in his 2018 Independence Day speech.

About the Mission

The salient features of the Gaganyaan Mission are:

• The Mission aims to carry three human beings for a maximum period of seven days in space with the support of academia, the scientific community, industry, IAF and Isro (Indian Space Research Organisation).
• India will launch two unmanned missions before the final mission. The first unmanned test-flight will be launched in December 2020. The second unmanned test will be conducted in July 2021 and the human space flight will be launched in December 2021.
• The module carrying three Indians will be attached to a service module. These two modules will comprise the orbital module that will be integrated with an advanced GSLV Mk III rocket.

• The rocket will take the modules to the low-earth orbit (300-400 km) where they will perform micro-gravity and other scientific experiments for a week.
• The orbital module will reorient itself. The crew and service module will get separated at 120km altitude.
• The crew module will reduce the speed by applying aerobrake and parachutes will open just before the splashdown in the Arabian Sea.
• The return journey will take approximately 36 minutes. The module can also land in the Bay of Bengal as a backup
• The crew members will be jointly selected by the IAF and Isro. The crew members would be trained for two-three years.

Isro had started preparations for the project way back in 2004. Gaganyaan will also provide employment to around 15,000 people.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2018