A female robot astronaut, Vyommitra, will go into space ahead of ISRO’s ambitious Gaganyaan mission, which will be India’s first manned space mission with Indian astronauts.

This was announced by India’s Minister for Science, Technology and Space Jitendra Singh while interacting with the press in New Delhi. “The Vyommitra mission is scheduled for the third quarter of this year and the launch of the manned Gaganyaan mission is scheduled for next year,” he said.

The name “Vyommitra” is derived from two Sanskrit words, ‘Vyom’ (space) and ‘Mitra’ (friend). According to the minister, this female robotic astronaut is equipped with the ability to monitor module parameters, sound alarms and perform life support operations.

Jitendra Singh also revealed that the Vyommitra astronaut is designed to mimic human functions in the space environment and interact with the life support system. This is reported by
ANI, a partner of TV BRICS.

It should be noted that ahead of the launch of India’s first ever manned space mission, a test flight of the TV D1 craft was conducted on 21 October last year. It was designed to test the crew escape and parachute system. All propulsion stages have been qualified. All preparations have been completed, Singh stated.

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