Future Indian human spaceflights might include women astronauts and scientists, according to ISRO Director S Somanath

Although there won’t be any female astronauts on the Gaganyaan mission in 2025, ISRO chairman S Somanath said on Sunday that women would undoubtedly be able to participate in future Indian manned space missions as scientists or astronauts.

According to Somanath, the Indian Air Force (IAF) test fighter pilots were chosen to be astronauts for the Gaganyaan mission, which would be the country’s first human spaceflight mission. No women were chosen since there are presently no women test fighter pilots.

When there are female test fighter pilots available, that will change, according to Somanath.

According to Somanath, being a scientist is the second route for women to get to space. India aspires to send astronauts into space for scientific study much like international space organizations that carry out missions overseas.

“No doubt about it…but we have to find out such potential (women) candidates in the future,” Somanath told PTI.The first applicants will currently be Air Force jet test pilots; they fall into a somewhat distinct group. We don’t currently have any female fighter test pilots. So, it is one way once they arrive.Scientists will then arrive in space suits. I thus think that there were greater opportunities for women at that time. There are now fewer opportunities due to the lack of female jet test pilots.

Even while Somanath acknowledged that the Gaganyaan mission will be brief, his remark regarding the idea of sending women to space as scientists suggests that longer missions with a strong scientific component are in the works. The Indian space program has, in fact, switched its emphasis in recent years from Earth-centric applications to purely scientific missions to study the cosmos and investigate celestial entities.

A female humanoid will be dispatched on the launch vehicle’s non-human test flights for the Gaganyaan mission, according to Somanath.

Wing Commander (Retired) Rakesh Sharma is the only Indian who has been to space so far. Sharma traveled to space in 1984 as part of an India-Soviet Union cooperative venture and stayed there for eight days. The famous response he gave when then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asked him how India seems from above was, “Saare jahaan se achha (The most beautiful in the world).”

At a high-level conference earlier this week to evaluate the Indian space program, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India will establish a space station by 2035 and people on the moon by 2040.

ISRO tested the Gaganyaan mission’s ejection mechanisms successfully earlier on Saturday. These devices are in place in case an emergency requires that astronauts evacuate from the spaceship. After the ejection, the astronauts’ ejection module splashes down on Earth, is retrieved, and is then brought to a secure place.