Singh pointed out that two previous missions were scheduled to demonstrate operations in different conditions of the crew’s escape system and parachutes .

A mission without crew has been planned for the last quarter of next year, followed by another in the second quarter of 2024 with a female-looking robot named Vyommitra.

It will carry softwares for mimicking basic metabolic functions and monitoring changes in heart rate, blood pressure and other parameters.

Singh said that future vyomanauts (vyoman means “space” or “sky” in Sanskrit) of the Gaganyaan mission are receiving specific training at a instruction center in the city of Bengaluru, the capital of the Karnataka state.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) plans to launch three vyomanauts into a 400-kilometre orbit for three days to conduct scientific experiments.

The spaceport of Sriharikota, a barrier island off the coast of the Andhra Pradesh state, awaits the vyomanauts of the Gaganyaan Mission (“spacecraft” in Hindi).

They will join the list started in 1961 by the Soviet Union, and continued by Russia, the United States and China, as the only countries to send manned missions into space so far.

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