{"id":39839,"date":"2024-02-28T11:59:31","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T06:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=39839"},"modified":"2025-04-24T20:01:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T14:31:42","slug":"4-astronauts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/4-astronauts\/","title":{"rendered":"PM Modi announces 4 astronauts for Gaganyaan"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in news?<\/li>\n<li>What is Gaganyaan?<\/li>\n<li>News Summary: PM Modi announces 4 astronauts for Gaganyaan<\/li>\n<li>Current status of Gaganyaan missions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in news?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>PM Modi has announced the names of the four astronauts, who would fly to low-Earth orbit as part of ISRO\u2019s Gaganyaan.<\/li>\n<li>The announcement came just days after ISRO said it had successfully tested the human readiness of the cryogenic engine.\n<ul>\n<li>This engine will be used on the LVM3 vehicles for all of the Gaganyaan missions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Gaganyaan<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Gaganyaan project envisages demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of 3 members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3 days mission and bring them back safely to earth.\n<ul>\n<li>It is part of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme (IHSP), which was initiated (2007) by the ISRO to develop the technology needed to launch crewed orbital spacecraft into low earth orbit (LEO).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3\/GSLV Mk3) rocket &#8211; the well proven and reliable heavy lift launcher of ISRO, is identified as the launch vehicle for Gaganyaan mission.\n<ul>\n<li>India\u2019s heaviest rocket consists of solid stage, liquid stage and cryogenic stage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>All systems in the LVM3 launch vehicle are re-configured to meet human rating requirements and christened Human Rated LVM3\/HLVM3.<\/li>\n<li><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/editor_images\/2024\/2\/28\/13\/14\/15\/65dee44fc5f1fb05998dd64b_OI.PNG\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>News Summary: PM Modi announces 4 astronauts for Gaganyaan<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>PM Modi announced the names of the four astronauts, who would fly to low-Earth orbit as part of the ISRO\u2019s Gaganyaan \u2014 the first crewed Indian space mission.<\/li>\n<li>The selected astronauts are:\n<ul>\n<li>Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, Angad Prathap, Ajit Krishnan, and Shubanshu Shukla.<\/li>\n<li>They are all either wing commanders or group captains with the Indian Air Force (IAF) and have extensive experience working as test pilots.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Current status of Gaganyaan missions<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Gaganyaan missions include both manned and unmanned missions.<\/li>\n<li>The first unmanned Gaganyaan-1 mission, a test flight to check the technology readiness for the final mission, is scheduled to take off by the end of 2024.<\/li>\n<li>The manned mission, which will fly a three-membered crew into a low earth orbit at an altitude of 400 km for a period of three days, is scheduled later.<\/li>\n<li>Human rating of the launch vehicle\n<ul>\n<li>ISRO will use its LVM3 rocket for all of the Gaganyaan missions.\n<ul>\n<li>LVM3, earlier called GSLV-MkIII, is the space agency\u2019s most powerful launch vehicle and has flown seven times and never failed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>For the manned Gaganyaan mission, ISRO has reconfigured all the components of LVM3 to meet human rating requirements.<\/li>\n<li>Recently, in February 2024, the space agency performed final tests on the <u>rocket\u2019s cryogenic engine, known as CE20<\/u>, which will power LVM3 during the cryogenic stage of the lift-off.<\/li>\n<li>The engine successfully passed and was certified for missions that would transport humans into space.<\/li>\n<li>The \u2018Vikas\u2019 engine to be used in the liquid stage and the solid booster, a part of the solid stage, have already qualified for the missions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Development of crew module and crew escape system\n<ul>\n<li>ISRO is also developing technology for the proposed human-space flight mission.<\/li>\n<li>These include:\n<ul>\n<li>the development of life support systems to provide an earth-like environment to the crew in space,<\/li>\n<li>crew emergency escape provision, and<\/li>\n<li>evolving crew management aspects for training, recovery, and rehabilitation of crew.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In October 2023, the space agency successfully conducted the first test of a basic crew module and crew escape system (CES).\n<ul>\n<li>CES is a part of the module that ensures \u201cthe crew is taken to a safe distance in case of any emergency either at launch pad or during ascent phase.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The next month, the space agency began to experiment with a crew module uprighting system.\n<ul>\n<li>This system is used to ensure that the crew module, making a splashdown in the sea after a space mission, stays upright and does not get inverted in the water.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Training of astronauts\n<ul>\n<li>The four selected astronauts have completed their generic training at Russia\u2019s Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre.\n<ul>\n<li>Their training took place after ISRO-Glavkosmos (a subsidiary of Russian space agency Roscosmos) signed an MOU in June 2019.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The astronauts are currently undergoing training at ISRO\u2019s astronaut training facility in Bengaluru.<\/li>\n<li>One of the four astronauts is also expected to be trained by the American space agency NASA.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1)\u00a0What is Low Earth Orbit (LEO)?<\/h3>\n<p>Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is a region of Earth&#8217;s orbit that is 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) or less from the Earth&#8217;s surface. It&#8217;s the closest orbital range to Earth, making it the easiest orbit to reach.<\/p>\n<h3>Q2) What is human rating of the launch vehicle?<\/h3>\n<p>Human-rating, also known as crew-rating or man-rating, is a process to certify a launch vehicle or spacecraft as able to transport humans safely.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-law\/sc-woman-military-officers-armed-forces-9184035\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>PM Modi announces 4 astronauts for Gaganyaan: Current status of the mission<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.isro.gov.in\/Gaganyaan.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>ISRO<\/u><\/a><u> |<\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/gaganyaan-from-astronauts-training-to-tech-upgrade-isro-making-leaps-to-meet-2025-target-for-manned-mission-8546259\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Indian Express<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gaganyaan is part of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme (IHSP).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39840,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}