Gaganyaan: Australia to support India's spaceflight mission by setting up ground station

Australia will be supporting India's Gaganyaan mission, said Anthony Murfett, Deputy Head of Australia Space Agency on Monday. He said that the Australia Space Agency will assist the mission by tracking the spacecraft through Cocos Keeling island. While talking at the International Space Conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Murfett said that it was a positive thing that the two countries cooperate on space operations and the space agencies of both countries have been heavily involved with each other.

He said at the conference, "We are going to be supporting this Gaganyaan mission by tracking through Australia''s territory on the Cocos Keeling Islands." ISRO chief K Sivan said earlier this year that the ISRO was in talks with the Australian agency to set up a ground station at the Cocos Keeling Islands for the Gaganyaan mission. It would be of great strategic importance as satellites in the orbit cannot pass along their information to the ground stations on Earth, if the spacecraft does not have a clear view of the ground station. A data relay satellite serves as a way to pass along the satellite’s information.

There are certain obvious faults, one of them being the possibility of blind spots due to the space station might not be able to receive signals and there could be a delay in getting the information. The data relay satellite tracking from Cocos Keeling island is expected to help the Indian spacecraft communicate with ISRO with ease and allow easy tracking of the Gaganyaan.

What is the Gaganyaan mission?

According to ISRO, “The Gaganyaan Programme envisages undertaking the demonstration of human spaceflight to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in the short-term and will lay the foundation for a sustained Indian human space exploration programme in the long run. The objective of the Gaganyaan programme is to demonstrate the indigenous capability to undertake human space flight mission to LEO.” The government of India has approved two unmanned missions and a single manned mission under the Gaganyaan project. The purpose of the programme was to progress towards a sustained and affordable human and robotic programme to explore the solar system and beyond.

(With PTI inputs)