- By Geeta Pandey
- BBC News, Delhi
The astronaut-designates received their “wings” on Tuesday
India has unveiled four Air Force pilots who have been shortlisted to travel on the country’s maiden space flight scheduled for next year.
The Gaganyaan mission aims to send three astronauts to an orbit of 400km and bring them back after three days.
India’s space agency Isro has been carrying out a number of tests to prepare for the flight.
In October, a key test demonstrated that the crew could safely escape the rocket in case it malfunctioned.
After its success, Isro said a test flight would take a robot into space in 2024, before astronauts are sent into space in 2025.
At a function at the Isro centre in the southern city of Thiruvananthapuram (formerly Trivandrum) on Tuesday, the four astronaut-designates were described as “dreamers, adventurers and valiant men preparing to go into space”.
The officers, chosen from the Indian Air Force, were introduced as Group…
