ESA Agrees Deal to Support Indian Gaganyaan Spaceflight Missions

The European Space Agency (ESA) has agreed to support the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) during the Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme. The ambitious flight will see India attempt to send people into space and will now have ground support from Europe’s largest space agency.

ESA to collaborate with ISRO on Gaganyaan missions

The agreement was formalised at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre with representatives of both ESA and ISRO present.

Gaganyaan consists of three different planned missions and there will first be two uncrewed missions, before a third, crewed mission into space. It will be the first time that India has sent humans into space and will now be able to rely on ESA facilities.

“The Network Operations Centre at ESA’s ESOC mission control centre in Germany will coordinate a series of radio antennas in the global European Space Tracking network (Estrack) that will enable ISRO to track, monitor and command the Gaganyaan crew module throughout each mission,” explained Octave Procope-Mamert who is currently Head of Ground Facility Operations at ESA.

The first mission has been slated for 2025 and will be supported by the ESA’s antenna situated in French Guiana. The next two missions will be supported by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Spanish National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA), all linked via ESOC.

What Happens Next?

A model of the Gaganyaan radio equipment will now be sent to ESOC in Germany and tests will be carried out to make sure the communication is effective when connected to the antenna in Kourou, French Guiana.

This isn’t the first time the two agencies have worked together. The ESA provided support to ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission in 2023 and the ESA’s ground stations are also downlinking most data that is coming from ISRO’s Aditya-L1 solar observatory.

ISRO has also assisted with the ESA’s Proba-3 mission, the third mission of its type to be launched from India. The collaboration also extends further for the ISRO, who recently signed an agreement with the Australian Space Agency (ASA) relating to crew and module recovery.