ISRO's Human Spaceflight Mission Gaganyaan To Miss Dec 2021 Deadline As Covid Restrictions Impact Preparations

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)'s flagship Gaganyaan mission shall not be able to meet the deadlines which had been set before the times when COVID-19 pandemic had hit the world, reports Times of India.

The nation's maiden human spaceflight mission, which is being spearheaded by ISRO, was scheduled to launch by a deadline of December 2021. However, owing to the pandemic-triggered lockdown and restrictions after it in different cities where ISRO's facilities are located, a lot of the mission preparations have been affected and a lot of work is still pending.

Meanwhile, the training of the four Indin astronaut-elects is set to be completed in Russia by either March or April 2021 as per ISRO chief Dr K Sivan. Following their return from Russia, the four men will thereafter undergo further training in India.

It should be noted though that Dr Sivan also shared that it is too soon to say if the project will also not be able to meet the 15 August 2022 deadline which had been announced in his Independence Day speech of 2018. He assured that ISRO will make every effort to go fast.