The first uncrewed mission of the Gaganyaan programme would be launched in the last quarter of this year, chairman of the India Space Research Organisation (Isro) V Narayanan said Tuesday. Gaganyaan, India’s first attempt to put humans into space, involves three uncrewed missions before the astronauts are flown to an orbit of 400 km for one to three days. The crewed mission is expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2027, Narayanan said. Story continues below this ad Narayanan added that the Axiom-4 mission from the United States, which is carrying Indian astronaut Subhranshu Shukla to the International Space Station (ISS), is expected to be launched in the first week of June. The experience gained from the Axiom-4 mission, including from the experiments performed onboard, would feed into the preparations for the Gaganyaan programme, he said. Anonna Dutt is a Principal Correspondent who writes primarily on health at the Indian Express. She reports on myriad topics ranging from the growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension to the problems with …