India raises budget for Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission to $2.32 billion

Axtec

13/02/2025 11:55

By Nivedita Bhattacharjee
       BENGALURU, Feb 13 (Reuters) - India has expanded its
Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission to include building and
operating a national space station, planning two crewed and six
uncrewed missions by 2028, a minister said on Thursday.
    Gaganyaan, meaning "sky craft" in Hindi, is India’s first
human spaceflight mission. It aims to launch a habitable space
capsule into a 400 km (250-mile) orbit and safely return it with
a splashdown in the Indian Ocean. 
    The mission will demonstrate India’s capability to send
astronauts into space and bring them back, a milestone achieved
so far only by the U.S., Russia, and China. The nation announced
its plan for a space station last year.
    Outlining the Gaganyaan mission's expanded tasks, deputy
minister Jitendra Singh told parliament the mission's budget had
risen to 201.93 billion rupees ($2.32 billion). It had earlier
received budget approval of about $1.1 billion, and was
originally planned as a project with one crewed and two uncrewed
missions.
    Various test flights and assemblies are under way.
    The ambitious mission, which was originally announced in
2019 with a target to send Indian astronauts into space by 2022,
has faced delays, primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic, supply
chain disruptions, and additional safety measures. 
    The delay has also been caused by a global shortage in the
supply of electronic components, equipment suitable for use in
space, extra test missions, safety checks for astronauts, and a
change in the spacecraft's design to keep its weight within the
carrying capacity of the rocket, Singh said in a written answer
to questions raised in parliament.
    The development of India’s own life support system crucial
for sustaining astronauts in space is also taking longer because
it is a new technology and could not be sourced from abroad as
planned, he added. 
    The country is aiming to have an operational Bharatiya
Antariksh Station by 2035 and sending an Indian crewed mission
to the Moon by 2040.
    One of the Gaganyaan crew members, Group Captain Shubhanshu
Shukla, is also part of the crew for Houston-based Axiom's
planned Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station.
($1 = 86.8925 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Bengaluru, Editing by
William Maclean)
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