India's space agency, ISRO, is preparing to launch its first uncrewed Gaganyaan mission, Gaganyaan-1 (G1), in December 2025. This test mission is a major milestone in India's human spaceflight program, designed to spend three days in low Earth orbit to rigorously test the spacecraft's critical systems. 

According to reports, the mission aims to validate key technologies required for future crewed missions, including life support, navigation, re-entry protocols, and other safety mechanisms essential for sending astronauts into orbit and returning them safely to Earth.

The spacecraft will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre and will orbit at a low altitude before safely landing. This process will allow engineers to monitor the spacecraft's performance under real conditions such as the stresses of launch, microgravity, radiation exposure, and re-entry dynamics.

In preparation for the mission, ISRO plans to conduct an integrated drop test involving the release of the crew module from a height to simulate landing using parachutes. This drop test is crucial for fine-tuning the recovery operations and ensuring the reliability of the landing systems, although the exact date for this test has yet to be announced.

Meanwhile, the astronaut training program continues to progress. Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, one of four Indian Air Force officers selected for the Gaganyaan mission, is scheduled to return to India after completing his recovery training following the Ax-4 mission.

The full astronaut crew is expected to resume intensive training in October at the Human Space Flight Centre in Bengaluru. There, they will train in a simulator designed to replicate the launch, orbit, and re-entry phases, preparing them thoroughly for the upcoming crewed missions.

This uncrewed mission and the ongoing astronaut training mark significant steps toward India's ambition of sending humans into space as part of the Gaganyaan program, representing a major technological and operational advancement for ISRO.

Agencies