Indian Astronauts Train at GCTC till Early 2021

Russia's State Space Corporation Roscosmos said that the training of the four Indian astronauts undergoing training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre (GCTC) was scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2021.

Follow New Defence Order. Strategy on Google News.

"To date, Indian cosmonauts have completed training on crew actions in the event of an abnormal descent module landing: in wooded and marshy areas in winter (completed in February 2020), on the water surface (completed in June 2020), in the steppe in summer (completed in July 2020). In June 2020, all Indian astronauts-elect passed training in short-term weightlessness mode aboard the IL-76MDK special laboratory aircraft, and in July, they were trained to lift aboard a helicopter while evacuating from the descent module landing point," said Roscosmos.

According to the Space Corporation, the programme also includes training in a centrifuge and in a hyperbaric chamber to prepare the astronauts' organisms for sustaining spaceflight factors, such as G-force, hypoxia and pressure drops. 

In November 2019, on the sidelines of the Dubai Airshow, the Director General of Russia’s Glavcosmos (incorporated into the state space corporation Roscosmos) Dmitry Loskutov announced that a training course for Indian astronauts would begin at the Russian Cosmonaut Training Center in 2020.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in August 2018 that his country planned to send the first national crew by 2022 when the country would mark the 75th anniversary of independence. As of now, the flight is planned for 2021. It will be preceded by two unmanned launches.

Our partners