Definition
Gaganyaan is India’s human spaceflight programme, led by ISRO, aimed at sending Indian astronauts to space and safely bringing them back to Earth.
Exam-ready points
- Gaganyaan is India’s flagship human spaceflight mission.
- The crew module must survive launch, orbit operations, re-entry, descent, and sea recovery.
- The deceleration system for the crew module uses 10 parachutes of 4 types.
- These include apex cover separation, drogue, pilot, and main parachutes.
- Parachute tests such as IMAT are mission-safety milestones and are especially important before crewed missions.
Common mistakes
- Do not confuse a launch vehicle test with a crew-module recovery-system test.
- Do not treat every Gaganyaan test as a crewed mission stage.
- Do not forget that safe return systems are as important as launch capability in human spaceflight.
Difficulty
Foundation
Revision time
About 10 minutes
Self-check questions
- Why are parachute tests central to human spaceflight safety?
- What is the difference between drogue parachutes and main parachutes in descent?
- Why is an uncrewed G1 mission an important step before a crewed mission?