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
- ISRO describes a system of ten parachutes in four types: apex-cover separation, drogue, pilot and main.
- Cover-separation parachutes uncover the compartment. Drogues then steady and slow the module; pilots extract the mains, which slow it further for sea landing.
- ISRO’s 8 July 2026 report described IMAT-05 as a main-parachute qualification test associated with the uncrewed G1 mission. This is a dated test report, not a statement of today’s mission status.
Source: ISRO’s IMAT report, 8 July 2026
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
- What role does the parachute system play during descent?
- How do drogue and main parachutes differ?
- What was IMAT-05 intended to assess in the cited report?
Answer notes
- It slows the module for sea landing.
- Drogues provide earlier stabilization and slowing; mains provide further slowing later in the sequence.
- The test assessed main-parachute strength and design margins under expected maximum loads for G1. It was not evidence of a crewed flight.