The central government is encouraging the private sector and startups for realisation of India's ambitious human space mission, said Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh.To a question raised in the Lok Sabha on the status of India's human space mission -- Gaganyaan -- Singh on Wednesday said: "The government is encouraging the private sector and startups for various Gaganyaan activities such as hardware realisation, components supply, health monitoring devices, Virtual reality simulators, etc."On the current status of the Gaganyaan project he said an astronaut training facility has been commissioned in Bengaluru. Training activities are progressing well there.The design of all systems and subsystems for Gaganyaan has been completed. Realisation of the same is in different stages of progress.Long duration qualification test of human rated cryogenic engine and first phase testing of the human rated VIKAS Engine has been completed. First phase of demonstration tests for Gaganyaan service module propulsion system also completed, Singh said.
According to him, the proof of concept demonstration for a ground network with service providers has been completed. Construction of an integration facility for Orbital module preparation is nearing completion."The MoU (Memorandum of Understanding), Contracts and Implementation Arrangements (IA) related activities with both national and international agencies are progressing well. The design of various human centric products has been completed and various prototypes are under realisation," he said.Further the receipt of Gaganyaan deliverables against contracts with Glavkosmos, Russia and CNES, France have commenced.The roles and responsibility for crew recovery operations and rehearsals have been finalised. Detailed operational requirements for nominal missions scenarios are also worked out."The activities related to development of microgravity experiments have commenced. The conceptual design for experiments is under review," Singh said.Earlier, the government had said major missions like test vehicle flights for the validation of Crew Escape System performance are currently targeted for the second half of 2022.Subsequently, the first unmanned mission of Gaganyaan (G1) is targeted for the beginning of 2023. This will be followed by a second unmanned mission and first manned mission.