No Gaganyaan unmanned flight this year

BENGALURU: The first unmanned flight as part of the preparations for the ambitious Gaganyaan project, will now happen only in 2021, as Isro revisits its plans owing to Covid-19. The mission was originally scheduled for later this year.
A senior Isro scientist said: “As per the plans being given to us, the Gaganyaan unmanned flight is not on this year’s schedule which focuses on other satellite launches.”
The scientist added that with the unmanned flight pushed, possibly to next year, the overall timeline of Gaganyaan, which envisages to send humans to space by 2022, will also get affected.
Isro chairman K Sivan told TOI: “With the present conditions, the unmanned flight may not be possible this year. We are planning about five to six missions, including the GiSAT-1 whose launch was postponed earlier this year. The details of these missions will be made public later.”
As per Isro’s preparation plans for Gaganyaan, the manned flight is to be preceded by two unmanned flights that will test all the systems before sending humans onboard. Now, the postponement of the first unmanned flight would mean that Isro will have to launch two unmanned missions next year if it has to keep the date set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Our plan is to take the humanoid in the unmanned flights. Whether we will launch two unmanned missions next year will depend on the emerging situations, we will have to decide based on what happens in the coming months. If Covid effects continue further, we may have to revisit some of our plans further,” Sivan said.
The first unmanned flight — whenever it is scheduled next — is likely to carry ‘Vyommitra’ (see pic), the womanoid prototype deemed for the mission. The humanoid is capable of monitoring crew module parameters, alerting Isro and performing life support operations.
Vyommitra will undergo further improvements, to be able to simulate human functions and interact with the environmental control and life support system.
Meanwhile, the four astronaut-elects are continuing to train in Russia after a brief suspension in training due to Covid-19, as reported by TOI earlier.
Chandrayaan-3 Postponed Too
Sivan said that even Chandrayaan-3, which was originally planned for end of this year or January 2021 will be postponed. The plans clearly show that Chandrayaan-3 is slated for next year, and various teams have been working on it, another scientist said.
“The configuration will be the same as Chandrayaan-2. We are working out details of various systems,” Sivan said. On whether Chandrayaan-3 will also carry an instrument from NASA, Sivan said there has been no such proposal received so far.
A source on the mission said that the committee has finalised the configuration and the programme has moved to the next level of execution.