4 astronaut-elects in Karnataka's Bidar to train for Gaganyaan mission

BENGALURU: The four astronaut-elects part of the Gaganyaan mission have landed in Bidar in northern Karnataka for the first part of their training module in India.
The four test pilots from the Indian Air Force (IAF) reached Bidar last week and will be flying in fighter planes at the IAF base in Bidar that houses the Hawk jets for the next week before moving on to other aspects of the training.
TOI was the first to report that the astronauts will begin training by September first week. Confirming the development, Isro chairman K Sivan said the training was felt necessary based on advice of experts as the four pilots had been “out of loop for more than a year”.
Wing Commander (retd) Rakesh Sharma, an astronaut who flew to space on a Russian mission in 1984, said: “...Any skill set cannot be allowed to rust and this is a continuity training. The reason test pilots are inducted for proving systems that haven’t been proved before, to create new protocols etc, is because they are trained because they are cut above the rest as pilots. This training is to ensure that their core skill set is not lost or rusted.”
Sharma, who is also part of the Gaganyaan national advisory council had earlier told TOI that test pilots, by virtue of their specialisations, have always been called upon to study deeply all that can probably go wrong in something that has not been tried before. This, he said, gave them the edge as they are experienced in preparing themselves better.
Sivan said that they are expected to complete the flight training schedule by the end of this week. Once the Bidar programme is complete, the astronaut-elects are scheduled to begin their academic or theory courses. Fitness and other related activities will be a continuous process through their training.
Further, Isro, which has signed a cooperation agreement with the Russian space agency for Gaganyaan, will be receiving the seats to be used on the crew module from Russia.
“We have placed orders for four seats to be installed in the crew module, each of which will be customised for the respective astronauts. So, at some point later, they will be going to Russia for this, and also to get the space suits stitched,” Sivan said.
Further, with the National Medical Advisory Council constituted specifically for the programme, having laid out the protocol to be followed given the pandemic situation, the astronauts would begin their academic or theory courses.
Among other things, the council has laid down guidelines for physical distancing, need for a glass separator between astronauts during academic training, creation of bio-bubbles while they are training on specific modules.