Gaganyaan: ISRO To Launch Humanoid Robot Vyommitra To Space This Year, First Manned Mission In 2025, Says Jitendra Singh

Gaganyaan: The first crewed mission of the Gaganyaan programme is scheduled to be launched in 2025. One can expect Vyommitra to take off anytime between July and September. 

Gaganyaan: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch humanoid robot Vyommitra to space in the third quarter of 2024, Union Minister of Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh has said. The Vyommitra mission is a part of the uncrewed flight tests of ISRO's Gaganyaan programme. The minister said that the first crewed mission of the Gaganyaan programme is scheduled to be launched in 2025, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The fact that Vyommitra will be launched in the third quarter of 2024 means that one can expect the mission to take off anytime between July and September. 

What does Vyommitra mean? What will the robot do in space?

Vyommitra is a portmanteau of the Sanskrit words "Vyoma", which means space, and "Mitra", which means friend. 

Vyommitra is a female humanoid robot that can monitor module parameters, issue alerts, and execute life support operations. Singh explained that Vyommitra can operate several panels and respond to questions, and it has been designed in such a manner that it can simulate human functions in the space environment and interact with life support systems. 

Gaganyaan programme's progress so far

On October 21, 2023, ISRO launched the first uncrewed test flight mission of the Gaganyaan programme. Known as the Test Vehicle Development Flight (TV-D1) mission, the experiment was important because it demonstrated the performance of the Crew Escape System. 

An in-flight abort of the Crew Escape System was demonstrated, which means that while the Crew Module was in the air, the Crew Escape System was jettisoned. This allowed ISRO to check certain flight parameters, and whether the Crew Escape System can be effectively separated from the Crew Module to save the lives of astronauts in case a mishap occurs. The Crew Module splashed down in the Bay of Bengal, and was successfully recovered. 

Gaganyaan's objectives

A human-rated Launch Vehicle Mark III (LVM3) will be used for the crewed mission of the Gaganyaan programme, which aims to demonstrate indigenous capability to undertake human spaceflight missions to low-Earth orbit. 

The objectives of the uncrewed missions of Gaganyaan are technology demonstration, and safety and reliability verification. The aim is to study spacecraft systems before conducting the first crewed spaceflight. 

If the first crewed mission of Gaganyaan is successful, India will become the fourth nation to independently send humans to space, after the Soviet Union, the United States, and China.