MUMBAI (Reuters) -India on Saturday called off a key test in its ambitious crewed space mission Gaganyaan, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.
“Vehicle is safe. Lift-off could not happen. We will come back later after investigating the reason,” ISRO Chairman S. Somanath told news agency ANI.
ISRO will reschedule the launch “soon”, Somanath said.
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 explore ways to achieve a sustained human presence in space once Gaganyaan is completed.
About 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 had not been announced.
($1 = 83.1500 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Siddhi Nayak; Editing by Lincoln Feast and William Mallard)
