Uncrewed Gaganyaan, GSLV launches among ISRO’s 2025 space missions: Jitendra Singh

New Delhi: Uncrewed Gaganyaan and GSLV launches are among ISRO’s 2025 space missions, said Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology.

Singh said this while chairing a high-level review of ISRO’s major upcoming space missions for 2025, alongside outgoing Chairman Dr. S. Somnath, his successor Dr. V. Narayanan, and other senior officials, including Pawan Kumar Goenka, Chairman of IN-SPACe.

With ambitious projects on the horizon, including the first “uncrewed” orbital mission under “Gaganyaan”, India’s space exploration efforts are poised for groundbreaking achievements.

In 2025, the Indian space sector has major projects lined up including the Gaganyaan human spaceflight, said Singh.

The launch of Gaganyaan’s uncrewed orbital test mission will pave the way for India’s human spaceflight programme. This will validate systems for crew safety and recovery.

Other key plans include two GSLV missions, a commercial launch of LVM3, and the much-anticipated ISRO-NASA collaboration on the NISAR satellite.

In January, the GSLV-F15 mission will carry the NVS-02 navigation satellite to augment the NavIC constellation. It will bolster India’s positioning and navigation capabilities with indigenously developed atomic clocks.

In February, the GSLV-F16 mission will launch NISAR — a sophisticated Earth observation satellite co-developed with NASA. NISAR is equipped with advanced radar imaging technology. It aims to provide critical data on agriculture, natural disasters, and climate monitoring.

In March, the commercial LVM3-M5 mission will deploy BlueBird Block-2 satellites under a contract with the US-based AST SpaceMobile. This underscores ISRO’s growing stature in the global space market.

Singh also lauded ISRO’s strides in fostering innovation and advancing India’s position as a space-faring nation. “Public-private collaboration is key in fuelling the country’s space ambitions,” he said.

Dr. S. Somnath, reflecting on his tenure, expressed confidence in the upcoming missions, while Dr. V. Narayanan outlined a strategic roadmap for expanding ISRO’s global footprint.

–IANS