India’s First Manned Space Mission ‘Gaganyaan’ To Have IAF Fighter Pilots As Astronauts

The fighter pilots from the Indian Air Force (IAF) will be the main astronauts for India's first manned space flight mission 'Gaganyaan', said Lieutenant General (Lt Gen) Bipin Puri, the Director General Armed Forces Medical Service (DG-AFMS), reports Times of India.

Lt Gen Puri, on the sidelines of the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Artificial Limb Centre (ALC) of the Indian Army in Pune, said, "We have got big groups of pilots of whom the best two or three would be selected for the mission,"

The Bengaluru based IAF's Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) has already initiated the process to finalise the crew for the space mission slated to be launched in 2022, India's 75th year of Independence.

Over the last few months, the IAM and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are said to have conducted several meetings to deliberate over the medical aspects pertinent to the mission.

The IAM was roped in by the Government to work alongside ISRO given it has the apt database related to flying and aerospace medicines which would be of great significance while selecting the right members for the crew.