Chennai: ISRO chairman K Sivan has said that India’s human space flight mission Gaganyaan will be ‘slightly delayed’ owing to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. He however said that ISRO will resume rocket launch activities from the first week of November.
Answering a query at the plenary session of the International Astronautical Congress 2020, Sivan said India’s first human space flight was targeted in August 2022, but owing to Covid-19’s impact on the operations, there will be a slight slip in meeting the mission’s target date.
Sivan said the Gaganyaan mission has advanced well and the country is taking the help of other space-faring nations like Russia for training the astronauts and some other critical aspects, France in the space medical area and is also approaching US space agency NASA.
He said that more than 75 scientists at different centres have tested positive and added that some missions were delayed as officials were unable to travel to the rocket port from different cities.
Sivan also said ISRO is planning to launch its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C49 (PSLV C49) during the first week of November. The PSLV C49 rocket will fly with RISAT-2BR2 as the main passenger and about several other third party satellites for a fee.