The Indian Space Research Organisation’s crewed Gaganyaan mission has been pushed back to 2024, due to lingering delays caused by Covid disruption.

It is expected that there will be two uncrewed launches next year.

The craft will launch on a repurposed GSLV III. This beast is a three stager primarily intended for delivery to Geosynchronous orbit: for these LEO crewed missions, the third stage is omitted.

Whereas the Chinese manned space program did quite a bit of “borrowing” from the Russians (but with more modern materials and updated controls), the Indian looks quite different in shape and general design. The photovoltaics are stuck on the side of the crew module, rather than having separate panels sticking out from the service module.

Like the Chinese Shenzhou, though, it does have max occupancy of three ‘nauts, and has a launch mass of about 8 tonnes. Unlike Shenzhou, the crew return module is designed for a splash down, not a ground landing.