India has considerably increased the budget for its Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission to $2.32 billion, which includes the construction and operation of a national space station. Union Minister Jitendra Singh told parliament on Thursday that the country now expects to launch two crewed and six uncrewed missions by 2028.
Gaganyaan is India’s first human spaceflight endeavour. The mission’s goal is to launch a habitable space capsule into a 400-kilometer orbit and return safely to the Indian Ocean by splashdown.
Gaganyaan was originally budgeted at $1.1 billion and scheduled to have only one crewed and two uncrewed flights. However, delays owing to COVID-19, and additional safety precautions have resulted in a revised plan. Singh highlighted a global lack of space-grade electronic components, more test flights, astronaut safety checks, and design changes to manage spacecraft weight as primary causes for delays. Despite these hurdles, India is moving forward.
The nation aims to have the Bharatiya Antariksh Station operational by 2035 and conduct an Indian crewed mission to the Moon by 2040.
Notably, one of the Gaganyaan astronauts, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station with Axiom’s Crew Dragon mission.
