PM Modi bestowed the astronaut wings and introduced these four astronauts-elects for the country’s maiden manned space mission. Group Captain Prashanth Nair, Group Captain Angad Prathap, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla. All four, short-listed four years ago, are Indian Air Force (IAF) test pilots from Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE) in Bengaluru.
PM Modi, who is on a short visit to Kerala, visited the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC) in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram where he reviewed the progress of the Gaganyaan Mission. He was accompanied by Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, union minister Muraleedharan, and ISRO chairman S. Somanath.
The Gaganyaan mission is India's first manned space mission, aiming for a launch between 2024-2025. The project envisages launching a crew of three humans into an orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission and bringing them back safely to Earth by landing in Indian sea waters. This will be India's first space mission in which astronauts will be taken to space in low orbit for some time. Gaganyaan mission will be launched in 2025 under which two to three astronauts will be sent into space in a low orbit of 400 kilometers.
