India’s first human space flight mission Gaganyaan is expected to delay by one year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials, PTI reported.

“That will be delayed because of COVID-19,” ISRO Chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan told PTI.

“We are targeting for sometime next year-end or the subsequent year,” he said on the expected timeline for the first of the two proposed uncrewed missions.

Two uncrewed missions would be undertaken prior to the manned mission, according to the mandate of Gaganyaan.

Accordingly, the unmanned missions were slated for launch in December 2020 and July 2021, and the first manned mission was scheduled in December 2021.

The Gaganyaan project has the objective of demonstrating human space flight capability to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with three crew members in orbit and safely recovering them after the mission.