Bengaluru: Dr Unnikrishnan Nair, a Keralite, has been named the director of Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC), an ISRO arm formed to train astronauts for Gaganyaan, India’s human spaceflight programme. Nair hails from Kothanallur, Kottayam. Dr R Hutton will be Gaganyaan project director, said ISRO Chairman K Sivan.
Mr Nair is the director of the Advanced Space Transportation Programme at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram. He heads the team researching in technologies like capture and reuse of rockets.
Earlier, Nair led the team that successfully developed ‘crew escape system’ that involves the rescue of astronauts in case of flight emergencies in 2018. India is the fourth nation to own this technology.
Hutton, an Alappuzha resident, has been project director for PSLV at VSSC and held the position of deputy director and project director.
Woman in team
The HSFC will be set up in Bangalore to plan the project to put three astronauts for seven days in space. A woman and an air force officer are expected to be on the team. Expert training will be held in Russia. Unmanned trial runs will be held in December 2020 and July 2021 for the project expected to be launched in December 2021.
Delay in Chandrayaan-2
Chandrayaan – 2 will be delayed by a few weeks because of some technical inspections, the ISRO chairman said. The project, expected to be ready before February 16 this year, is now slated for mid-April. It might well be posted for July if there is a further delay. There is no government interference in the project, he said in response to a query if the delay had anything to do with the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Busy year
In 2019, the ISRO has twice the number of missions it had last year. The 32 missions on the anvil include eight PSLV, two GSLV Mk 3s and 18 satellite launches.
