For Gaganyaan astronauts, Isro may opt for Russian-made spacesuits

NEW DELHI: NEW DELHI: The Indian astronauts who will be travelling to space on the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Gaganyaan spacecraft will likely wear Russian-made spacesuits, despite speculation that the indigenously made Intra Vehicular Activity suits may be used. Isro chairman S Somanath said earlier this month that 2024 will be the “year for Gaganyaan” Documents reviewed by HT show that while the space agency has nearly completed work on its IVA suits, developed by the Vikram Sarabhai Space, the Gaganyaan mission — which is India’s first manned spaceflight — will see Isro sticking to Plan A of suiting up the three Indian astronauts in Russian spacesuits. After the TV-D1 test flight demonstration, which was carried out in October last year, the space agency will also be carrying out a test flight with a robot, ‘Vyomitra’, a humanoid astronaut, and an unmanned flight before the manned mission, possibly scheduled for 2025, according to officials from the department of space. “On September 3, Indian cosmonauts who have been training for a spaceflight in Russia under the contract of Glavkosmos, visited Zvezda, where their anthropometric parameters were measured for the subsequent production of spacesuits,” Glavkosmos, a subsidiary of the Roscosmos, the Russian space agency said in a statement last year.