First unmanned test of India’s manned Gaganyaan capsule possibly delayed until late ’27
Artist rendering of India’s Gaganyaan capsule
In a presentation yesterday, the head of India’s space agency ISRO V Narayanan indicated that the first unmanned test flight of its manned Gaganyaan capsule might be delayed until the third quarter of 2027.
That test flight was originally targeting a March 2026 launch — part of a series of three unmanned test flights before the manned flight in early 2027 — but March came and went and nothing happened, nor did ISRO explain the lack of any action.
In indicating the possible delay, Narayanan also noted that the agency was looking at a launch before the end of this year. A delay until late ’27 — more than a year — however would suggest a significant issue. It would also mean the manned flight could not occur until 2028, at the earliest.
When Gaganyaan was first proposed in 2018, the goal was to have the first orbital flight in 2022. Since then the program has experienced endless delays and postponements. This new announcement, with no explanation, fits ISRO’s recent pattern of secrecy. No specific reasons for this year’s delays have ever been offered. Meanwhile, the agency has refused to outline for more than two years the specific causes of the two PSLV rocket failures of its third stage, both of which occurred at almost the exact same time in launch.
The secrecy suggests a cultural problem at ISRO, even more serious than a technical one. It implies an unwillingness to deal with error, thus resulting in repeated failures.
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They are developing a new capability from scratch. Manned spaceflight is still an incredibly specialized field. Expertise in it is still rare relative to other space industries. They are also not starting with a Mercury or Vostok type craft. They want to do most of the work up front to make it a real fully maneuverable spacecraft capable of docking , etc. They want modern risk tolerances. That is all pretty hard.
What are the US, Chinese and Russian interests in this? Are they helping in any meaningful way. At least some stuff is public, like the docking adapter specs. However, not everything can be communicated by a publications. There’s surely a lot of “tribal knowledge”.
Cloudy: I agree that this is difficult, and delays are to be expected, especially because they are starting almost from scratch and haven’t done it before.
My complaint is with this new policy of secrecy. It is not the right way to go, as it makes it harder to fix problems.
I don’t recall ISRO being nearly so tight-lipped under its previous boss. I suspect the current stonewalling is pretty much entirely the doing of this Narayanan character. As the contrast between, say, Trump and Biden makes clear, there’s no substitute for having the right guy in the Big Chair. I’m thinking the current occupant of said chair at ISRO is probably not the ideal man for that particular job.
I wish the Indians well, but I think they are being poorly served by the current head dude at ISRO.
The head of ISRO traditionally has a two-to-three year term. The first PSLV failure occurred under the previous head. When Narayanan took over in 2025 he immediately demanded more testing and better quality control. For example, he restructured the Gaganyaan program, demanding more launch abort and drop tests, and insisted on three unmanned missions prior to the manned mission.
These demands seemed right at the time, because the previous head appeared to have been too nice a guy, at least to me as an outsider looking in. Now, it appears Narayanan is pulling the pendulum too far in the other direction, demanding so much review that nothing is getting launched, and hiding the results out of fear of public reaction.
His term reaches two years in January. It might last longer, but I suspect there will be a change, sooner rather than later.