ISRO to continue lunar mission until an Indian sets foot on Moon: S Somanath

Ahmedabad: The Indian Space Research Organization will continue to conduct its Chandrayaan series of lunar missions until an Indian astronaut successfully lands on the moon, said ISRO Chairman S Somanath on Wednesday.
Last August, the premier space agency’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft made a soft landing on the southern polar region, making India the first country to do so.
“Chandrayaan 3 has performed incredibly well. Scientific publication has just begun, and data has been collected. We now wish to carry on with the Chandrayaan series until an Indian sets foot on the moon. We need to master a lot of technologies beforehand, like how to travel there and back. That is what we are attempting to accomplish with the next mission,” he said to reporters on the sidelines of an event organised by the Astronautical Society of India in Ahmedabad.
On India’s first-ever human space flight mission ‘Gaganyaan’, Somanath said this year, ISRO plans to conduct an airdrop test, an unmanned mission, and a test vehicle flight mission. “The airdrop test is scheduled for April 24. Next year, two more unmanned missions are scheduled, and if all goes as planned, the manned mission will take place by the end of next year,” he said.
The Gaganyaan project aims to demonstrate the capability of human spaceflight by launching a crew of three people into a 400 km orbit for a three-day mission and safely returning them to Earth by landing in Indian sea waters, he added.
When asked about ISRO’s recently developed Carbon-Carbon (C-C) nozzle for rocket engines, he said it will enhance payload capacity by being lightweight, and it will be installed in the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
He said, “We have spent many years trying to develop this technology. We have now built it, mastered it, and tested it in the engine. It’s a Carbon-Carbon nozzle. It enables us to function at higher temperatures and provides us with a weight advantage over metal. Weight loss increases engine efficiency and payload capacity. We’re going to include it in PSLV.”