Gaganyaan is India's inaugural human spaceflight initiative, comprising three planned missions: two uncrewed test missions and one crewed flight. ESA will provide essential tracking, monitoring, and command capabilities for all three missions.
"The Network Operations Centre at ESA's ESOC mission control centre in Germany will coordinate a series of radio antennas in the global European Space Tracking network (Estrack) that will enable ISRO to track, monitor and command the Gaganyaan crew module throughout each mission," stated Octave Procope-Mamert, Head of Ground Facility Operations at ESA.
The program's first uncrewed mission, anticipated in 2025, will be supported by ESA's 15-meter antenna in Kourou, French Guiana. Subsequent missions will benefit from additional antenna systems operated by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Spanish National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA), all interconnected via ESA's ESOC in Germany.
A compact model of the Gaganyaan radio equipment is slated to arrive at ESOC in Germany shortly. This equipment will undergo compatibility testing at ESOC's Ground Segment Reference Facility to confirm seamless communication between ISRO's spacecraft and ESA's antennas.
ESA and ISRO share a longstanding partnership in space exploration. Recent collaborations include ESA's assistance with ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission in 2023 and ongoing support for the Aditya-L1 solar observatory mission, which investigates the Sun and the origins of space weather. Furthermore, ISRO facilitated the launch of ESA's Proba-3 mission, showcasing mutual trust and operational synergy.
This latest agreement marks a pivotal moment in ESA and ISRO's relationship, as the agencies continue to expand their cooperative efforts in human spaceflight and beyond.
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