As mentioned by Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday that India's maiden human space-flight mission Gaganyaan has been expected to be launched in 2024.

HIGHLIGHTS
Human space-flight mission Gaganyaan has been expected to be launched in 2024
The government had planned the human space flight for 2022
Indian Air Force identified four fighter pilots as potential crew for the mission

As Mr. Singh has been speaking to the reporters on the sidelines of an event, he has mentioned that the government had planned the human space flight for 2022, the year of India's 75th anniversary of Independence, however the schedule went awry on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.

'As like India the COVID-19 pandemic had taken a toll on the coaching of astronauts in Russia,' Mr. Singh has added to the first test-flight of the Gaganyaan mission was scheduled to take place later this year.

The first test-flight was going to be followed by sending a female-looking spacefaring humanoid robot named Vyom Mitra which had been in outer space likely next year.

The four fighter pilots have been identified by the Indian Air Force as the potential crew for the human space flight mission. The potential crew had undergone certain basic training in Russia.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) would send a minimum of two astronauts into a low earth orbit in 2024 once they had assessed the result of the two orbital test flights.

The second orbital test flight would take away the Gaganyaan crew capsule to the higher altitude and bear an identical abort scenario to perfect the system.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had proclaimed the Gaganyaan mission in his Independence Day address in 2018 at a value of Rs 10,000 crore.

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