Indian astronauts

To start with, here are nine brilliant minds who have pushed scientific boundaries and played key roles in space-related discoveries and missions for NASA. They range from record-setting astronauts to program mangers and decorated researchers, all of whom have played a major role in re-defining man’s understanding of the Universe. Ashwin Vasavada was recently named Project Scientist for NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity, thereby placing him in charge of a team of nearly 500 researchers around the globe. A former Deputy Project Scientist for the mission, he has spent more than a decade on the Mars Science Laboratory and knows the mission and its sub-system in a way that few others do. Vasavada, with his experience, was also a part of several spacecraft missions by NASA such as the Galileo Mission to Jupiter, the Cassini Mission to Saturn, Mars Polar Lander, and Mars Odyssey, and is excited about his new and challenging role. “N ot just once-in-a lifetime experience, but one that many people never even get. It’s going to be an incredible few years, and worth whatever it takes.” Vasavada told Nigerian-born Sharmila Bhattacharya has a Master’s and Doctorate degree in molecular biology from Princeton University and has conducted post-doctoral research in neurobiology at Stanford University. Her research at NASA has involved studying immune system changes during spaceflight and the effects of radiation and altered gravity on living systems, which is conducted by studying the effect of...

Becoming an astronaut and flying beyond the skies is a dream that every other child born in the space era cherishes. Right from a young age, the mysteriously twinkling stars stir a curiosity—wondering what lies beyond Earth or how our blue planet would look like from the world above us. This curiosity inspired us to fly beyond the gravitational bounds of our home planet repeatedly since 1961, when Yuri Gagarin first orbited the Earth. With the launch of the International Space Station (ISS) in 1998 and its continuous inhabitancy since 2000, there hasn’t been a single day in the last two decades when every individual of our species was on Earth at the same time. The glorious era of flying to the cosmos sparked significant interest in India after Indian astronaut Rakesh Sharma flew aboard Soyuz T-11 on April 3, 1984. Later, Kalpana Chawala and Sunita Williams embarked on brave space adventures as NASA astronauts. For space enthusiasts in India, all these names are the role models—their posters decked in astronaut suits stuck on the wall of our rooms. Millennials grew up looking up to them with much awe and admiration! And now, a dream for one such space enthusiast is set to turn into a reality. Sirisha Bandla, originally from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, is set to make her starry dream come true tomorrow (Sunday, July 11) with a private mission by Virgin Galactic alongside its founder, billionaire Richard Branson. The dream The 34-year-old Sirisha Bandla grew up in Houston, Tex...

The Gaganyaan program aims to launch an astronaut before the 75th anniversary of India's independence, in 2022, according to previous statements from the nation's space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). According to Russia's space agency Roscosmos, the four Indian astronauts "are in good health and are determined to continue their training." The trainees arrived in February and are scheduled to complete their stay at the facility in early 2021. Preparing for spaceflight The training program for the foursome has encompassed a broad range of skills necessary for spaceflight, according to the Roscosmos statement, including learning Russian and studying every aspect of the Soyuz vehicle. The Indian astronauts have also completed a variety of simulations mimicking different ways astronauts can return to Earth, including landing on the steppes, in wooded or marshy areas and splashing down in bodies of water. The Indian astronaut trainees have also undergone short-term weightlessness simulations and practiced being air-lifted from a landing site in a helicopter.Still to come in the Indian astronauts' training will be centrifuge simulations of G-forces and stints in a pressure chamber, each of which will teach their bodies what to expect from spaceflight. See more India has been pressing forward with its human spaceflight program despite budgetary constraints, although the coronavirus pandemic has taken its toll on schedule. To date, two Indian astronauts have...

On April 2, 1984, Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot Rakesh Sharma reached low Earth orbit aboard a Soviet rocket for a weeklong stay on the Salyut 7 space station. This made him the first and only Indian citizen to venture into space. Now, almost 36 years later, the country that was once dependent on the Soviets for getting into orbit is inching toward its very own human spaceflight program — one that aims to launch its first crewed flight, called Gaganyaan, in December 2021. With a goal to demonstrate India’s homegrown technology, for the first time in history the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch three astronauts into low Earth orbit for a minimum of one week. This will be a historic moment for India, retired ISRO scientist Kashyap Mankad explained to Astronomy, one that the country will long remember. Off to a rocky start ISRO’s goal to send Indian astronauts into space is not entirely new. While Challenger disaster and NASA’s subsequent pause in crewed flights brought ISRO’s plans to a grinding halt. This led ISRO to redirect its funding toward indigenous launch vehicles, pushing its crewed missions to the sidelines. The dormant dream of crewed flights resurfaced in 2006. The intermittent planning for the Gaganyaan mission began, but a lack of funding prevented significant progress. It was only after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially Sending a dummy to space In preparation for the 2021 crewed mission, ISRO plans to conduct two un-crewed flig...

So far, sending humans into space has been limited to the space programs of only three countries: the U.S., Russia (inheriting that of the former Soviet Union), and, joining them in the 21st century, China. But a fourth is poised to follow: the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), India's space exploration agency. ISRO isn't afraid to dream big. The agency's head, K. Sivan, has talked about space stations and moonwalks. ISRO hopes that the long arc toward those goals can begin with its first program of crewed missions, Gaganyaan (derived from Sanskrit, meaning "sky-vehicle"). But Gaganyaan's timetable remains murky — largely thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Certainly, all the pieces are coming into place. ISRO's first four would-be space travellers recently spent about a year in Russia, familiarizing themselves on old Soyuz capsules and simulating spaceflight conditions in centrifuges and pressure chambers. Now, they've returned to India, where they'll begin training on the Gaganyaan capsule itself. To ensure that its space travellers are in good health, ISRO in April unveiled an agreement with its French counterpart. India and France have a long history of space cooperation, and France has plenty of space medicine knowledge that it has previously brought to programs like the International Space Station. "It is only logical that Indian flight medical professionals train and learn from the French," Mukund Kadursrinivas Rao, chief executive of the Centre for Spatial An...

For more than four years the Indian space agency ISRO has been working on its most ambitious Mission yet known as Gaganyaan 3. This Mission will involve sending Indian astronauts to space and returning them to Earth safely all of this uses indigenous technology to know how far the astronaut's training has progressed listening to our correspondent Siddharth MP who spoke exclusively to ISRO Chief Dr S Somnath.