Usually, for a few hours before a rocket lift-off, there would be no one in a 4km radius around the launch pads at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, India’s spaceport on Sriharikota island reported Times of India.

Considered a “danger zone”, this area is devoid of uman activity during launches. Even the two CISF personnel guarding the launch pads leave their posts two hours before liftoff.

But in 2025, for the first time since Sriharikota became a spaceport in 1971, Indian astronauts donning spacesuits will access the launch pad via an exclusive platform and board a capsule attached to the LVM-3 or GSLV MK-3 rocket just minutes before it blasts off, marking a big leap forward in India’s space exploration efforts.

As the spindle-shaped 43,360-acre island is set to become the gateway for Indians’ entry to space through the Gaganyaan mission, ISRO is upgrading the 19-year-old second launch pad and adding facilities at the spaceport to ensure entry to the launch pad, a secure lift-off and the crew’s safe return to earth.

The first launchpad, which hosted a test vehicle abort mission in Oct 2023, will also be upgraded.

Recently, workers were seen welding and refurbishing the launch pads.

“We are not upgrading but adapting,” says SDSC director A Rajarajan.

“The Gaganyaan program aims to put two or more Indians in space and bring them back in a limited time. A separate launchpad takes time. Instead, we have worked out a system to improve the reliability of the existing second launch pad.”

There will also be a crew ingress and egress system, access platform, escape mechanism for ejection of the crew module from the launch vehicle in case of anomaly, recovery setup for emergencies during the flight’s ascent phase, module preparation facility for assembly and testing, and makeshift sanitized guest houses for the crew for a weeklong stay.

All the facilities will be connected to the Gaganyaan control facility, which will monitor the health of the vehicle, the crew module that will carry the astronauts and communicate with those onboard. All systems including the checkout system for the second launch pad will have redundancies.

“It will be a continuous upgrade till the launch because we are doing it for the first time. Each time we experiment, we may make some modifications.

All these systems are indigenously made. It’s an almost ₹2,000 Crores investment,” says Rajarajan.

The GSLV MK-3 or LVM-3, the rocket that will carry the astronauts, will also receive more safety features.

“We will not be using the vehicle’s full capability but reducing it to improve reliability,” says Rajarajan. The project will demonstrate Indian Space Research Organisation’s human spaceflight capability by launching a human crew to an orbit of 400km and bringing them back safely to earth by splashing down in Indian waters.

The mission may last from eight hours to a day and astronauts will be in the crew module throughout. A separate service module will be attached to the crew module to provide environmental and life support systems, which includes maintaining temperatures between 25 degrees C and 27 degrees C, removing carbon dioxide, and maintaining the oxygen and nitrogen ratio. The service module will get separated once the crew module deorbits.

The astronauts’ suits will also be equipped to provide thermal insulation, supply oxygen in emergencies, remain pressurised and facilitate communication with the ground crew.

SHAR officials say a series of tests will be done to identify critical areas in the mission, because if an anomaly arises, it may be required to abort.

“The initial problem could happen in the pad. There could be a fuel leak, in which case the vehicle may explode.

We need to be able to predict it and the crew in the module should be able to fly at least 2km away and return. That’s called pad abort. We will do these tests,” says Rajarajan.

A series of helicopter-based air drop tests, for which a helipad is built in SDSC, from different altitudes will be conducted to check the functions of the parachutes, damage likely to occur and ways to prevent it. During the test, the velocity of the crew module will be reduced as it splashes down in the sea and the internal emergency system in the astronauts’ suit, which supplies oxygen, will get activated.

“We will do a rehearsal of keeping the astronauts psychologically in good condition. In SHAR, we must do all these for which we have to establish the infrastructure,” says Rajarajan.

In Jan, ISRO chairman S Somanath announced they are targeting two abort mission trials, two unmanned missions, multiple helicopter drop assessments, and various evaluations including environmental control support system trials, crew module assessments, and simulation exercises. “2024 is going to be a year of Gaganyaan readiness,” he said.

(With Inputs From TOI)