At a ceremony during an official visit to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, on February 27, Prime Minister Narendra Modi revealed the names of the four astronaut-candidates for the first human spaceflight mission, a.k.a. Gaganyaan, of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). They are group captains Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan, and Angad Pratap, and wing commander Shubanshu Shukla — all with the Indian Air Force.
The purpose of Gaganyaan is for ISRO to demonstrate human spaceflight to a low-earth orbit, with an Indian launch vehicle. Teams at the organisation are currently putting various components of the mission through their paces in the course of human-rating them — i.e. making sure their failure rates are below specific thresholds, rendering them safe enough for humans to fly to space with. Gaganyaan has two important uncrewed test flights coming up. If they are successful, the first crewed flight is (so far) slated for 2025.
