Bengaluru: Group Captain Angad Pratap, one of the astronauts selected for the Gaganyaan mission, on Wednesday said delays were part of developing a human spaceflight programme and should be taken with a "pinch of salt", stressing that patience was needed to ensure its eventual success.
He said the astronauts were continuing to train and prepare for the Gaganyaan mission according to the timelines prescribed by ISRO headquarters.
"When you become an astronaut, you have to start living with this fact that there are going to be delays in prototype programmes, especially. We did not join as astronauts thinking that everything was foreknown-that the vehicle is ready, the rocket is ready, you come, this is the date..." he told reporters here on the sidelines of the ninth edition of the Bengaluru Space Expo 2026.
Pratap, a fighter pilot with the Indian Air Force, pointed out that when American or Russian astronauts join a programme, they do so with the expectation of getting an assured flight within a certain finite period.
"But when it came to us, we were joining a prototype programme not only for the flight but to build that programme from whatever small contribution we can make. We are continuing to make that contribution," he said.
Responding to queries on the delay in the mission, the astronaut stressed that the programme was not just about the flight, as a substantial amount of work also had to be completed on the ground.
"...It might be delayed by a few months or, let's say, one or two years. But once it happens, it has to be positively successful, and that's why all of us should take this delay with a pinch of salt, because that is the starting point. You don't want to fail at the starting point itself. The programme will probably just stop, for all we know. We don't want that to happen," he said.
Noting that some of the brightest minds in the country were working on the mission, he urged people to trust them.
"Let's be patient. Let it happen at its own pace," he said.
On his role in the mission, the Group Captain said he was involved in the design process for the front-end architecture of the human-machine interface.
"But for that, I need to utilise the operational flow of events, my aviation knowledge, and everything. I sit with the designers. I tell them what is to be designed and how. So, in a way, I work on the operational requirement sets," he said.
He explained that he made replicas of how the front-end architecture should look while taking into account the hardware realities involved.
"So, it's a very, very niche topic. No one person can stake a claim that I have designed this," Pratap said.
He noted that there was a plan to select six more test pilots and four people from non-aviation backgrounds.
"So I was an experimental test pilot. After I was selected, I learned a lot about engineering and medicine. If a doctor is selected, he or she will have to learn about aviation and engineering. Similarly, an engineer will have to learn about medicine and aviation."
In his address following the successful launch of EOS-05, ISRO Chairman V Narayanan said activities were underway "very vigorously and systematically" for the launch of the uncrewed mission.
The Gaganyaan mission is India's first human spaceflight programme currently under development. It aims to send a three-member crew on a three-day mission to space and bring them back safely to Earth.
"The Gaganyaan programme is planned in 2027. Before that, three uncrewed missions are planned. We are working towards the first uncrewed mission," Narayanan had told reporters.
