Watch: Indian Air Force shares 'first-look' of India's ISRO Gaganyaan Astronauts

In what is the first-ever official glimpse of the Indian astronaut candidates, the Indian Air Force shared a clip that showed them in intense workout mode. They are featured in the video clip that was released by the Indian Air Force, as part of the 91st Indian Air Force Day celebrations.

Four Indian Air Force pilots have been screened and handpicked after multiple rounds of scrutiny, to undertake ISRO’s ambitious Gaganyaan Human spaceflight mission to Low Earth orbit.

Since India doesn’t yet have an exclusive pool of astronauts, the best option was to pick the ideal candidates from the Indian Air Force pilots, who are accustomed to bearing the high-loads of ‘g’ forces experienced during complex aerial manoeuvres.

All of us on the Earth’s surface of the earth experience ‘1g’ force, which is the ordinary pull of gravity.

During rapid acceleration or deceleration of an aerospace vehicle, this force is manifold (denoted by the number preceding the ‘g’). Simply put, the phenomenon is referred to as ‘g force’ or the acceleration due to gravity.

Given the nature of their profession, fighter pilots are trained to take sustained loads of g forces, thereby making them better suited for undergoing training for astronaut missions.

Indian astronaut candidates had already completed a round of training at Russia’s Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre and have been undergoing simulator and theoretical training in India.

WION learnt that they even visited ISRO’s lead centre Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram, earlier this year.

VSSC, which is responsible for conceptualising, designing and developing all space-transportation systems for the country, is preparing the crew module that would house the astronauts.

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This year, during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the US, US President Joe Biden had announced a mission to launch Indian astronauts to the International Space Station in 2024 and mentioned it as a collaboration on Human Spaceflight.

This also means that Indian astronauts would train at the Johnson Space Centre in the Texas, USA.

The Indian astronaut mission to the ISS is expected to serve as a precursor to the Indian Gaganyaan mission and offer valuable insights and practical lessons on living and working in space.

This is crucial, given how the first and only Indian astronaut (Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma) who had travelled to space, did so as part of the Soviet Interkosmos programme in 1984.

Indian Air Force’s Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma (centre), flight engineer Gennady Strekalov (L) and commander Yury Malyshev (R) alongside the screengrabs of the-then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s interaction with Rakesh Sharma | spacefacts.de/YouTube via Indian National Congress

The Indian Air Force video clip offering a glimpse of the astronaut candidates comes ahead of the 91st Indian Air Force day that is to be celebrated on October 8th.

By the end of this month, ISRO is expected to perform the maiden in-flight abort test of the Gaganyaan crew module. The crew module would be mounted atop a mini-rocket named as ‘Test Vehicle’ and launched to an altitude of 11-14 kms.

On reaching the designated altitude and flight parameters, the crew module would be ejected from the rocket and carried to a safe altitude away from the rocket, and then deploy parachutes a splash down in the Bay of Bengal.

This test is similar to a fighter pilot ejecting from a fighter aircraft that is in extreme danger. In the astronaut mission, in case there is an issue with the rocket carrying the astronauts, the crew module would have to eject itself to safety and protect the astronauts nestled within.

This is a crucial test ahead of the maiden unmanned flight of the actual Gaganyaan mission that ISRO hopes to undertake by March 2024. After a series of successful uncrewed flights, ISRO would be undertaking the astronaut mission.