The Air Force pilots Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan, Angad Pratap, and Shubhanshu Shukla make up the final selection of applicants from which India will choose its astronauts for its human spaceflight project, also known as Gaganyaan. The decision, made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a formal visit to Kerala, removes the last remaining uncertainty around the ambitious endeavor, which intends to launch an Indian crew aboard an Indian rocket into low-Earth orbit. With the possibility of unforeseen delays excluded, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has said that it plans to carry out two human-rated Launch Vehicle Mark-3 rocket test flights in 2024 and 2025, as well as a crewed launch in 2025. In 2018, the Union Cabinet authorized Gaganyaan, which came at a ₹10,000 crore cost. Since then, the mission’s many components have been brought together by the ISRO centers and their partners in business and academia, all the while navigating delays brought on by the COVID-19 epidemic and ISRO’s economic obligations. India is genuinely in the last stretch now that the astronauts’ names are public knowledge.
Although it would be foolish to think that a project this size could be totally devoid of political influence, Gaganyaan cannot be entirely driven by political motivations either. In order to “maintain India’s edge in… human spaceflight,” the Indian Space Policy 2023 mandates that ISRO “carry out applied research and development of newer systems” and “… develop a long term road-map for sustained human presence in space.” Like Gaganyaan, ISRO has flown a plethora of technological, scientific, and commercial missions with enough backing from the Center to shield them from political accountability.But moving forward, it need to be different, with a rationale that can withstand public examination and discussion and foster a really democratic space exploration culture, instead of appearing to be driven by geopolitical goals. The goal must be to give Gaganyaans, both present and future, an identity rooted less in “India’s edge,” which when maintained for its own sake becomes a vacuous thing, and more in the fundamental act of creating new scientific and societal value. This is similar to how a road map is being set, accommodating Mr. Modi’s “directive” to ISRO to land an Indian on the moon by 2040. China and other nations may possess superior technology, but India should continue to prioritize scientific research and broadening human perspectives above attaining the position as a “space superpower.”