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Human spaceflight and space stations

Human spaceflight: India's crewed programme and its test flights, space stations, astronauts on foreign missions, and keeping a crew alive in orbit and bringing it home. Prelims has asked about Gaganyaan and other microgravity missions.

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2025: Axiom-4, SpaDeX and Gaganyaan as microgravity missions

Showing 1 of 3 subjects, those that changed from 16 to 31 July 2026.Show all

Gaganyaan

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Prelims and Mains

Gaganyaan is the first human spaceflight programme of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and it will carry a crew module to low Earth orbit and bring it back. The programme is being proved in stages, and each test clears one of the things that can kill a crew.

  • The first uncrewed flight, carrying the half humanoid Vyommitra, is targeted for the last quarter of 2026, with two more uncrewed flights and the first crewed flight by 2027.
  • The crew escape test TV-D1 and two parachute air drop tests are done, and TV-D2 is in progress.
  • Every stage of the human-rated LVM3 (Launch Vehicle Mark-3) has been ground tested.

What changed

  1. 21 Aug 2026

    The Hindu, 21 Aug 2026: How Gaganyaan's heat shield will protect the crew (opens in a new tab)

  2. 30 Jul 2026Update

    • The government approved indigenous development of four items now bought abroad: the flight suit, the view port, the crew seat and the docking system.
    • The baseline design review of BAS-01, the first of five modules of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station, is complete. BAS-01 is to fly by 2028 and the full station by 2035.

    PIB, 30 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT AND INDIGENOUS SPACE TECHNOLOGY (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 29 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: GAGANYAAN PROGRAMME (opens in a new tab)

  3. 12 Jul 2026Update

    • ISRO completed the first ground test of SOLVE, a solid motor vehicle built to lift the crew module to 10 to 17 km so that the full parachute sequence can be tested, and cleared tests of the system that keeps the module upright after splashdown.
    • The crew module is a sphere and cone shape: the blunt base throws a detached shock wave that keeps heat away, while the cone gives the lift and stability a sphere lacks.

    The Hindu, 12 Jul 2026: ISRO successfully carries out tests of Gaganyaan systems (opens in a new tab)

Background reading: PIB, 5 Aug 2026: Gaganyaan timeline and Bharatiya Antariksh Station (opens in a new tab)