Gaganyaan (from Sanskrit: gagana, "celestial" and yāna, "craft, vehicle") is an Indian crewed orbital spacecraft intended to be the formative spacecraft of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme. The spacecraft is being designed to carry three people, and a planned upgraded version will be equipped with rendezvous and docking capabilities. In its maiden crewed mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)'s largely autonomous 5.3-metric ton capsule will orbit the Earth at 400km altitude for up to seven days with a two- or three-person crew on board. The first crewed mission was originally planned to be launched on ISRO's LVM3 rocket in December 2021. As of September 2023, it is expected to be launched by mid-2024.
The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)-manufactured crew module underwent its first uncrewed experimental flight on 18 December 2014. design of the crew module has been completed. Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will provide support for critical human-centric systems and technologies such as space-grade food, crew healthcare, radiation measurement and protection, parachutes for the safe recovery of the crew module, and the fire suppression system.
Next scheduled launch
For a full schedule of launches and deep-space rendezvous, see 2023 in spaceflight.
On March 18, 1965, he became the first human to conduct extravehicular activity (EVA), exiting the capsule during the Voskhod 2 mission for a 12-minute spacewalk. During the spacewalk, he encountered severe difficulties due to the design of his spacesuit.
Leonov had been tapped to be a commander for the Soviet crewed lunar programs, and would've commanded the first crewed Soyuz 7K-L1Zond mission if it were ever cleared to proceed. He was selected as commander of Soyuz 11, the second planned (and first successful) mission to the Salyut 1 space station, but the entire crew was swapped out when crewmate Valeri Kubasov was suspected of contracting tuberculosis. This saved him from dying when Soyuz 11 de-pressurized during re-entry, killing the cosmonauts on-board.
Leonov would serve as "Chief Cosmonaut" from 1976 through 1982, and retired from the Soviet space program in 1991. He would spend time in the private sector in post-Soviet Russia, most notably at Alfa-Bank, until he retired for good in 2001. He has written several books about his space experience, including a joint biography with American astronaut David Scott in 2006.
A Ukrainian Zenit-3SL rocket launches the Italian SICRAL 1B military communications satellite from the Sea Launch platform Odyssey, located in the territorial waters of Kiribati, on April 30, 2009. Sea Launch is a unique launch provider that ships rockets and payloads to be launched from a platform placed at the Equator, providing for optimal payload capacity and direct insertion to geostationary orbit (GEO) without the need to change inclination. Sea Launch has conducted 36 launches since 1999, with four failures.
…that a CubeSat (pictured) is a cube, 10 centimetres in all dimensions, weighing less than one kilogram?
…that when investigating the Challenger accident, Richard Feynman threatened to remove his name from the report unless it included his personal observations on the reliability of the shuttle?
