India plans manned space flight by 2027
by AFP Staff Writers
New Delhi (AFP) May 6, 2025
India’s space agency said Tuesday it planned to launch an uncrewed orbital mission later this year before its first human spaceflight in early 2027.
“It represents India’s rise as a global space power”, Jitendra Singh, the country’s science and technology minister, said in a statement.
The world’s most populous country has flexed its spacefaring ambitions in the last decade with its space programme growing considerably in size and momentum.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced plans to send a man to the Moon by 2040.
“The uncrewed orbital Gaganyaan (“space craft”) mission is on track for launch later this year, with recovery trials already conducted with the Indian Navy, and more sea recovery simulations planned,” the Department of Space said in a statement.
Along with other tests, this will lead to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sending astronauts into space.
“These milestones will culminate in India’s maiden human spaceflight in 2027, launching Indian astronauts into orbit aboard an Indian rocket from Indian soil,” it added.
ISRO said the spaceflight was scheduled for “the first quarter” of 2027.
“Training of astronauts is also progressing steadily,” the statement added.
“Four Indian Air Force pilots, selected as astronaut-designates, have completed training in Russia and are undergoing further mission-specific training in India.”
India has matched the achievements of established powers at a much cheaper price tag.
In August 2023, it became just the fourth nation to land an unmanned craft on the Moon after Russia, the United States and China.
This month, Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, 39, is expected to fly to the International Space Station — becoming the first Indian astronaut to do so and the second in orbit ever.
The mission, which is jointly being undertaken by NASA and the ISRO, will be launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
Shukla, who is set to pilot the Axiom Mission 4, is likely among the top candidates for ISRO’s spaceflight programme.
Shukla’s travel to space will come four decades after India’s Rakesh Sharma’s iconic spaceflight onboard a Russian spacecraft in 1984.
ZIndia’s woman fighter pilot trailblazer eyes space
New Delhi (AFP) May 6, 2025 –
The excited little girl who first touched a plane two decades ago is now flying high as the face of India’s fast-modernising military and its only woman Rafale fighter pilot.
“This is where my adventure began,” Shivangi Singh, 29, told AFP at the Air Force Museum in New Delhi, recalling her first visit as a child when she “gawked” and “immediately knew that I wanted to become a pilot”.
Women were first inducted into the fighter pilot ranks in 2015, two decades after they were allowed to join the Indian Air Force (IAF).
“There have been many of us,” said Singh, a lieutenant. “This not only reflects modernisation (of our society) but also the fact that we can now realise our dreams.”
Singh, who is married to a fellow fighter pilot, is the first Indian woman to fly the French-made single-seat Rafale jets.
New Delhi last month signed a multi-billion dollar deal for 26 of the aircraft from Dassault Aviation, adding to 36 already ordered.
The jets are part of a major modernisation of the IAF to replace its ageing fleet of Russian-made MiGs.
The deal comes as tensions with arch-rival Pakistan rise after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for an attack in contested Kashmir in April that killed 26 people.
Pakistan has
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