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ISRO Chief V Narayanan Declares 2025 as 'Gaganyaan Year'

  • 2025 Declared 'Gaganyaan Year' by ISRO chief V Narayanan.
  • First uncrewed mission of the Gaganyaan Programme scheduled for December 2025.
  • Vyommitra, a humanoid robot, will be on board the first uncrewed mission.
  • Over 7200 tests completed, with 3000 tests pending for Gaganyaan.
In a significant announcement, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chief V Narayanan has declared 2025 as the 'Gaganyaan Year', underscoring the critical milestones the agency aims to achieve as part of India’s first human spaceflight programme. Speaking at an event in Kolkata on Thursday, Narayanan highlighted the ongoing momentum and rigorous preparations underway to ensure the success of the ambitious Gaganyaan mission.
“This year is a very important year for us. We have declared it Gaganyaan year. Before sending the humans, we have planned three uncrewed missions and the first uncrewed mission is planned this year”, said the ISRO Chairman. He revealed that more than 7,200 tests have already been completed, with 3,000 more pending, as teams work around the clock to meet mission objectives.
Approved in December 2018, the Gaganyaan Programme aims to demonstrate human spaceflight to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), laying the groundwork for long-term human exploration efforts by India. The first uncrewed mission will carry 'Vyommitra', a female-looking humanoid robot designed to simulate human functions and provide critical data.
Also Read: How GCCs Are Quietly Powering Global Tech Strategy
Narayanan also announced the successful completion of the SpaDeX (Space Docking Experiment) mission, a major technological milestone. “Today, we are happy to report that the SpaDeX mission has been successfully completed. We accounted ten kilos of fuel to do this mission, but we did it with only half the fuel, and the rest is available for future experiments”, he noted. SpaDeX is a cost-effective demonstrator mission launched via PSLV to validate in-space docking technology.
Looking ahead, the ISRO Chief confirmed a packed calendar for 2025, which includes the launch of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite, a joint mission that will study Earth’s ecosystem and climate changes. Importantly, the mission will be launched using India’s indigenous launch vehicle. “A number of important missions are planned this year, including commercial and communication satellite launches”, he added.
Narayanan reaffirmed that the first uncrewed Gaganyaan mission is slated for December 2025, followed by two more uncrewed flights. The ultimate goal remains to send Indian astronauts into space by the first quarter of 2027. “Almost every month this year, a launch is scheduled”, he said, signaling a highly active and critical phase for India’s space ambitions.
 
ISRO Chief V Narayanan Declares 2025 as 'Gaganyaan Year'

  • 2025 Declared 'Gaganyaan Year' by ISRO chief V Narayanan.
  • First uncrewed mission of the Gaganyaan Programme scheduled for December 2025.
  • Vyommitra, a humanoid robot, will be on board the first uncrewed mission.
  • Over 7200 tests completed, with 3000 tests pending for Gaganyaan.
In a significant announcement, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chief V Narayanan has declared 2025 as the 'Gaganyaan Year', underscoring the critical milestones the agency aims to achieve as part of India’s first human spaceflight programme. Speaking at an event in Kolkata on Thursday, Narayanan highlighted the ongoing momentum and rigorous preparations underway to ensure the success of the ambitious Gaganyaan mission.
“This year is a very important year for us. We have declared it Gaganyaan year. Before sending the humans, we have planned three uncrewed missions and the first uncrewed mission is planned this year”, said the ISRO Chairman. He revealed that more than 7,200 tests have already been completed, with 3,000 more pending, as teams work around the clock to meet mission objectives.
Approved in December 2018, the Gaganyaan Programme aims to demonstrate human spaceflight to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), laying the groundwork for long-term human exploration efforts by India. The first uncrewed mission will carry 'Vyommitra', a female-looking humanoid robot designed to simulate human functions and provide critical data.
Also Read: How GCCs Are Quietly Powering Global Tech Strategy
Narayanan also announced the successful completion of the SpaDeX (Space Docking Experiment) mission, a major technological milestone. “Today, we are happy to report that the SpaDeX mission has been successfully completed. We accounted ten kilos of fuel to do this mission, but we did it with only half the fuel, and the rest is available for future experiments”, he noted. SpaDeX is a cost-effective demonstratormission launched via PSLV to validate in-space docking technology.
Looking ahead, the ISRO Chief confirmed a packed calendar for 2025, which includes the launch of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite, a joint mission that will study Earth’s ecosystem and climate changes. Importantly, the mission will be launched using India’s indigenous launch vehicle. “A number of important missions are planned this year, including commercial and communication satellite launches”, he added.
Narayanan reaffirmed that the first uncrewed Gaganyaan mission is slated for December 2025, followed by two more uncrewed flights. The ultimate goal remains to send Indian astronauts into space by the first quarter of 2027. “Almost every month this year, a launch is scheduled”, he said, signaling a highly active and critical phase for India’s space ambitions.
Lmao, they also said same thing last year, it's not Gaganyaan year, untill Gaganyaan is launched
 
Don't know where else to post this. There are some ISRO experiments on board the flight 🙂

 
Other than that NO other tech gain. It will not accelerate timeline
That’s not the point to begin with. Shukla Ji’s experience will help our scientists understand how things work on the ISS. That’s exactly what they’re saying even in that video. We’ll also get to study the impact of microgravity on the human body once he returns from the mission, and use that data to improve our own life support systems.

Let me be very frank—why are you being so pessimistic about this? This is how scientific research works. I really don’t understand this mindset some Indians have, where they expect everything to happen instantly like Maggi noodles. Everything has to be flashy and bombastic for them to consider it meaningful.

It took decades for ISRO to transform from launching rockets carried on bicycles to sending our own satellites to the Moon and Mars on indigenously developed SLVs. That kind of progress doesn’t happen overnight. So please, have some patience instead of being salty about every small step forward.
 
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Other than that NO other tech gain. It will not accelerate timeline
It's fine. It saves time. Vyomnauts shall atleast have one person who is experienced of challenges. And here know how may not be achieved but know what things are needed - that shall be gained. Space like Jet engine can only be known by doing what has been done before or is being done elsewhere.

What we should worry about is ISRO's abysmally low launch rate. Even diversification of PSLV launch to pvt has not taken much less achieving lofty goal 9f one launch per month.
 
It's fine. It saves time. Vyomnauts shall atleast have one person who is experienced of challenges. And here know how may not be achieved but know what things are needed - that shall be gained. Space like Jet engine can only be known by doing what has been done before or is being done elsewhere.

What we should worry about is ISRO's abysmally low launch rate. Even diversification of PSLV launch to pvt has not taken much less achieving lofty goal 9f one launch per month.
Major issue with ISRO has always been funding tbh. We can't expect them to take risk and do that many launches with funding that is similar to 10 years ago, with very minimal increament. Because any failure leads to cut in funding & other bs. They still have to pay to those private companies for those SLVs afterall. Ideally their budget should be increased every year significantly but we don't see that at all. And government instead of realising their chindigiri instead takes pride in chindiness that ISRO built something on alms thrown at them.

I'm fine with them delaying Gaganyan tbh. No need to rush such a project when human elements are involved. They should take their sweet time. Cutting corner and rushing something like that would only lead to disaster.
 
Major issue with ISRO has always been funding tbh. We can't expect them to take risk and do that many launches with funding that is similar to 10 years ago, with very minimal increament. Because any failure leads to cut in funding & other bs. They still have to pay to those private companies for those SLVs afterall. Ideally their budget should be increased every year significantly but we don't see that at all. And government instead of realising their chindigiri instead takes pride in chindiness that ISRO built something on alms thrown at them.

I'm fine with them delaying Gaganyan tbh. No need to rush such a project when human elements are involved. They should take their sweet time. Cutting corner and rushing something like that would only lead to disaster.
Issue is not delay in Gaganyaan. Issue is because of delay in Gaganyaan other programs have been thrown to backburner and suffering delay which include launches.
 
Issue is not delay in Gaganyaan. Issue is because of delay in Gaganyaan other programs have been thrown to backburner and suffering delay which include launches.
Yep. That is sadly bound to happen because ISRO is short staffed and they don't have enough funds for everything. ISRO needs another round of reform tbh, they need to hire more R&D staffs and they should be given more funds. Maybe 2-3 times more of what they get. This will fix all these issues.
 
It's fine. It saves time. Vyomnauts shall atleast have one person who is experienced of challenges. And here know how may not be achieved but know what things are needed - that shall be gained. Space like Jet engine can only be known by doing what has been done before or is being done elsewhere.

What we should worry about is ISRO's abysmally low launch rate. Even diversification of PSLV launch to pvt has not taken much less achieving lofty goal 9f one launch per month.
The new chairman's record so far has been unimpressive, regret to say. 2 major failures( including one on the 3rd stage of the PSLV which had never happened before) out of 2 major launches! And no further launches. The docking/undocking of Spadex twice over has been the one bright spot.

He/ISRO could redeem themselves in a huge way by a strong second half of the year, July to December. 5 successful launches before the end of the year would be very uplifting and praiseworthy. It might make people forget the 2 earlier failures!
 

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