Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S Somanath said on Friday that India’s first human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, is on track for launch by the end of this year.

“Gaganyaan is ready for launch. We are making efforts to launch it by the end of this year,” Somanath said during a visit to the Space Expo in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

This announcement follows Wednesday’s Union Cabinet approval to expand the Gaganyaan program, greenlighting the construction of the first unit of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (Indian Space Station). The Gaganyaan initiative, approved in December 2018, aims to send Indian astronauts to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and establish the foundation for long-term human space exploration.

Regarding the Chandrayaan-4 mission, Somanath revealed that ISRO has completed the engineering phase. “The Cabinet has just announced its approval for Chandrayaan-4. We expect updates in the coming months,” he said. Somanath highlighted the increased complexity of this mission compared to Chandrayaan-3, adding it will require two launches due to its larger size and additional modules.

The Chandrayaan-4 mission, approved on September 18, will focus on developing technologies for returning to Earth after a lunar landing and collecting moon samples for analysis.

The Chandrayaan-4 mission will achieve the foundational technologies and capabilities eventually for an Indian landing on the moon (planned by the year 2040) and return safely back to Earth. Major technologies that are required for docking/undocking, landing, safe return to earth and also accomplish lunar sample collection and analysis would be demonstrated.

The central government has outlined an expanded vision for the Indian space programme during the Amrit Kaal that envisages an Indian Space Station (Bharatiya Antariksh Station) by 2035 and an Indian Landing on the Moon by 2040.

(Inputs from ANI)