AHMEDABAD: The countdown to India’s ambitious manned spaceflight mission Gaganyaan has begun and Isro scientists are at breakneck speeds to achieve the mission’s December 2021 deadline. India’s indigenously developed astronaut crew escape suit, bearing the ‘Made in Vadodara’ tag is the first on Isro’s wardrobe. The suit is 20% lighter and one hundredth of the cost of its foreign counterpart. The astronaut crew escape suit will see the best of both American and Russian space suits. The last time an Indian wore a space suit was in 1984, when wing commander Rakesh Sharma flew aboard Russian Soyuz T-11.Sure Safety, a Vadodara-based industrial safety equipment manufacturer has designed the suit from scratch after collaborating with Isro’s Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad. The firm gave the first glimpse of the space suit at the Futuristic Technology Exhibition inaugurated on Thursday at the Science City. Nishith Dand, managing director of the firm, told TOI that trials for testing the material under lab conditions are almost over, including vacuum chambers tests. “Right from the communications, bio-sensors measuring body temperatures, oxygen and carbon-monoxide levels and to pressure management systems, all technology has been developed indigenously. We are the fourth company in the world to produce a suit for astronauts,” he said. Other feature of the suit are a flexible hood zipper, touch screen sensitive gloves, utility pockets, air diverters and light weight shoes. The space suit operates at temperature ranging from minus 40°C to 80°C.Talking about how the suit fares compared to its counterparts used by space agencies in the US and Russia, Dand mentioned that the suit is about 20% lighter while maintaining high standards of safety vis-à-vis fire, water and pressure changes. “We can say that functionality-wise, it’s a cross between the suits used by Russia and the US in terms of life support system, oxygen/air management and functionality,” he added. The suit will also be nuclear, biological, chemical (NBC) resistant.