Two Indian astronauts are set to undergo training at the NASA’s Johnson Space Center

Two Indian astronauts will train at NASA's Johnson Space Center in preparation for a joint India-US mission to the International Space Station. This collaboration marks a significant step in India's space program and strengthens US-India space cooperation.

More encouraging news for India’s space program two Indian astronauts are planned to undergo training at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Texas from August as stated by the ISRO. This development comes after the US President Joe Biden in June 2023 revealed his agenda of launching an Indian astronaut to the ISS.

The astronauts who have earlier undergone their basic training at Moscow’s Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center are gearing up for a Indo-United States mission to the ISS. The Indian space program will benefit greatly from this experience from the American firms SpaceX and Axiom, which are expected to perform this mission by the end of 2024.

Former ISRO chairman K Sivan underlined this training, saying: “This is an extremely important step towards the Gaganyaan programme. ” This year, India plans to launch the Gaganyaan mission to orbit at an altitude of 400 km for a short-term mission with Indian launch vehicles.

Currently, ISRO is working on both, the hardware and the training system by establishing the Astronaut Training Centre in Bengaluru. These options are accompanied by the academic courses, flight systems, microgravity, aero medical, and survival education.

The Gaganyaan mission, expected to launch by 2026, has selected four Indian Air Force pilots: Group Captain Prashanth Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Squadron Leader Angad Pratap and Wg Cdr Shubhanshu Shukla.

The upcoming mission to the ISS is another step in India’s manned spaceflight endeavours, the first of them being the eight-day mission of Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma to Salyut 7 space station back in 1984 that was a part of Indo-Soviet joint mission.

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NASA’s training centre at Johnson Space Centre is now a new era of collaboration and is a significant progress towards India’s human spaceflight programme.