Why in news? In an important step towards realising India’s ambitious Gaganyaan mission to put an Indian in space, the Indian Navy and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released the Gaganyaan Recovery Training Plan at the Water Survival Training Facility (WSTF) at INS Garuda, Kochi.

Highlights:

• The human flight, after two unmanned flights, is scheduled to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2024.
• The training document was jointly released by Director General of Naval Operations; Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, (VSSC); and Director, Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) of the ISRO.

What does the plan contain?

• The document outlines the training plan for recovery of the crew module of the mission.
• It defines overall requirements with respect to training of various teams participating in recovery operations including divers, MARCOs (marine commandos), medical specialists, communicators, technicians and naval aviators.

How is the training planned?

• The recovery training is planned in incremental phases starting from unmanned recovery to manned recovery training in harbour and open sea conditions and are being led by the Indian Navy in coordination with other agencies
• The Navy will also assist ISRO by undertaking a series of trials to fine-tune the standard operating procedures for training the crew and recovery teams of Gaganyaan.

Future endeavours

• India’s maiden human space flight ‘H1’ mission is targeted to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2024.
• The uncrewed ‘G1’ mission is targeted to be launched in the last quarter of 2023, followed by the second uncrewed ‘G2’ mission in the second quarter of 2024, before the final human space flight ‘H1’ mission in the fourth quarter of 2024.
• These demonstrator missions include Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT), Pad Abort Test (PAT), and Test Vehicle (TV) flights.

Training for astronauts

• The astronaut designates for human space flight mission are currently undergoing their mission-specific training at Bengaluru with the second semester of crew training currently underway. Corresponding evaluation and assessment activities have also been completed.

About Gaganyaan mission

• The Gaganyaan mission aims to demonstrate the capability to launch human beings (three crew members) to low earth orbit (LEO) and bring them back safely to earth by landing them in either the Bay of Bengal or the Arabian Sea.
• Launch Vehicles: The Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3) is the launch vehicle for the Gaganyaan mission.
• All systems in the LVM3 launch vehicle are reconfigured to meet human rating requirements and named Human Rated LVM3 (HLVM3).
• HLVM3 consists of Crew Escape System (CES) powered by a set of quick acting, high burn rate solid motors which ensures that Crew Module along with the crew is taken to a safe distance in case of any emergency either at launch pad or during ascent phase.