Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi: we will send the flag of the country in space aboard the "Gaganyana" in 2022

Photo of a fully assembled GSLV-F08 launch vehicle inside a vertical assembly building, Sriharikot. Photo source: PTI File Photo

Today, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a speech dedicated to Indian Independence Day, said that in 2022, in honor of the 75th anniversary of the country's independence, the spacecraft Gaganyaan (Gaganian, ") With crew on board.

Narendra Modi: “I am pleased to announce that we want to send a man into space - as yet unknown, a man or a woman - and this man will certainly hold in our hand our national tricolor ; most likely, this will happen in 2022, during the celebration of India’s 75th anniversary of independence, and maybe a little earlier. ”

Thus, India can become the fourth power to send a man into space independently, after the USSR, the USA and China (in 2022, by the way, Denmark also wants to launch its first cosmonaut).

Indian Space Research Organization(Indian Space Research Organization, ISRO) announced a manned space flight program called Vyom (Wyom, Sky) about ten years ago; most likely, it will be a flight to a low reference orbit on a triple spacecraft launched by our own production Mark GSLV III launch vehicle.

The plans of ISRO marked two unmanned missions, and then one manned by LEO lasting from five to seven days. The development and design of the spacecraft is already in full swing.

As you know, in 2007, India carried out an experiment on the return550-kilogram orbiter, which safely returned to Earth after 12 days in space, which indicates the presence of technologies to create materials suitable for protection against thermal heating in the atmosphere; and in July of this year, ISRO, in the Satish Dhavan Space Center, tested the crew’s emergency rescue system, one of the most critical systems in case of emergencies with a manned spacecraft.

In addition, India has successfully completed missions to the Moon and Mars.

The first Indian lunar probe, Chandrayan-1, went to its destination in October 2008 and worked until August 2009. The start of the second, Chandrayaan-2, is scheduled for January 2019; During this mission, the landing vehicle must be landed near the South Pole of the Moon.

And Mangalyaan (“Mangalyan, literally“ Martian apparatus ”) or Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) - the first Indian interplanetary station, was launched by ISRO on November 5, 2013; from September 24, 2014, she is still working in Mars orbit.