The pandemic has also delayed other big-ticket missions
That Isro had planned for the year, including India’s first solar mission , Aditya L1, originally scheduled for mid-2020.
, Gaganyaan, is likely to be delayed by a year owing to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
India’s first manned space mission
“That (Ganganyaan mission) will be delayed because of Covid,” Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chairperson K Sivan told PTI. “We are targeting for some time next year-end or the subsequent year,”
he said on being asked about the two unmanned missions that were to precede a Vyomnaut (as the Indian astronaut will be termed) being sent to space.
The first of these was scheduled for December 2020, the second for June 2021, before the manned mission on December 2021.
An Isro official clarified that a new timeline is not in place yet. “The pandemic has impacted most of the missions planned for this year and the next, including the Gaganyaan mission.
A committee is currently reviewing all the missions and where we stand but there is no official timeline yet.
This is because, other than Isro, many industries are involved in these missions and they are not working at 100% capacity yet. Once the industries apprise us of their timeline, we will be able to decide on the official dates for the mission,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
This means that the mission is likely to miss the deadline set by the Prime Minister of August 2022.
In his Independence Day address of 2018, the PM said that an Indian astronaut will be sent to space before the country celebrates its 75th year of Independence in 2022.
Larsen and Turbo has already delivered one of the segments of the S200 rocket motor that will be used by the human-rated GSLV Mark III for the mission.
The astronaut training is also underway in Russia, with the four trainees expected to return to India in March for training on the Indian system.
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