On Saturday, India called off a crucial test in its ambitious crewed space mission Gaganyaan, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said.
S. Somanath, the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) told news agency ANI, “Vehicle is safe. Lift-off could not happen. We will come back later after investigating the reason.”
Somanath said that ISRO will reschedule the launch “soon.”
The Gaganyaan mission is aimed at developing a human-habitable space capsule that will carry a three-member crew into an orbit of 400 km (250 miles) for three days, before splashing down in the Indian Ocean.
ISRO has said it would probe ways to acquire a sustained human presence in space once Gaganyaan is completed.
Roughly 90 billion Indian rupees ($1 billion) has been allocated for the mission, which follows the agency’s historic landing of its Chandrayaan-3 craft on the lunar south pole.
The Gaganyaan mission has been expected to launch from the country’s main spaceport in Sriharikota before 2024, although a schedule has not been announced.
