Newsnomics AJAY ANGELINA reporter |

India has announced the names of first four crew members for Gaganyaan-1 mission, the country’s first human space flight program. It is a test flight to check the technology readiness for the final mission, scheduled to take off by the end of 2024.

Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Pratap, and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla are India’s astronauts-designated for Gaganyaan, India’s first crewed space mission, announced by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi  on Tuesday.

PM Modi bestowed the four with the prestigious astronaut wings, described them as “four forces” who represent the aspirations and optimism of 1.4 billion Indians.

The announcement was made at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center in Thumba, Kerala, days after the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said it had successfully tested the human readiness of the cryogenic engine known as CE20, that will be used on the Gaganyaan mission vehicles. The engine successfully passed the test and was certified for missions that would transport humans to space.

ISRO’s Gaganyaan mission will seek to demonstrate India’s human spaceflight capability by launching astronauts to Low Earth orbit (LEO) of 400 kms for a three-day mission and bringing them safely to earth with a planned splashdown in Indian sea waters.

PM Modi said, “We are witnessing another historic journey at Vikram Sarabhai Space Center.” 

“By 2035, India will have its own space station in space that will help us study the unknown expanses of space,” Modi said.

“This is the beginning of a new era, where India is continuously expanding its space in the global order and this is clearly visible in our space program” he added.

An India is going to space, after 40 years. This time, the time is ours, the countdown is ours and the rocket is also ours,” he said.

PM Modi by giving the reference of Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma — the only Indian who flew aboard Soyuz T-11 on April 3, 1984, as part of the Soviet Interkosmos program, said “the four Indian Air Force pilots have trained at Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre 2021 in Russia’s Zvyozdny Gorodok city from February 2020 till March 2021. 

NASA, the US space agency will also train an Indian astronaut for a scheduled mission to the International Space Station by December-end 2024, said Bill Nelson, the agency’s administrator during his visit to India in 2023.

The Gaganyaan mission, estimated to cost over $1 billion. If the mission is successful, India will become the fourth nation to conduct independent human spaceflight after Russia, the US and China.