India has broadened the scope of the Gaganyaan mission and plans to carry out two crewed space flights by 2028, Parliament was informed on Thursday.
According to the enhanced scope, the Gaganyaan programme will have eight missions -- two crewed and six uncrewed -- Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
Mr Singh said the earlier Gaganyaan programme entailed one crewed mission and two uncrewed ones.
The total funding for the programme has been enhanced to Rs 20,193 crore to address the programmatic requirements, according to the revised scope that includes new developments for the Bharatiya Antariksh Station and precursor missions, he said.
The allocation also covers additional requirements to meet the ongoing Gaganyaan programme, he further said.
The Gaganyaan project was announced in 2019 with the first manned space flight planned for 2022.
Mr Singh said the delay was due to the slow pace of work in the industry during the Covid pandemic, which also affected the production of avionics components.
Supply chain disruptions resulted in irregular supply of raw materials and a consequent delay in realisation of hardware, he said.
A longer cycle time for the indigenous development of a life support system also led to the delay, the minister said.
The life support system could not be procured through the external route, he added.
A major design revision in the orbital module was required to contain overall mass within the launcher (Human-rated Launch Vehicle-M3) capability further added to the delay, Mr Singh said.
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