scorecardresearch
Friday, Mar 29, 2024
Advertisement

First Indian will be sent to space by our own rocket in 2021: ISRO chief K Sivan

If India does launch the Gaganyaan mission, it will be the fourth nation to do so after the United States, Russia and China. The mission is estimated to cost around Rs 10,000 crore.

Gaganyaan ISRO, ISRO space Gaganyaan project, Gaganyaan project India ISRO, Indian in space, Indian Express news ISRO Chairperson K Sivan addresses during the 8th convocation of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar, at Argul in Khordha district, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019. (PTI)

India is moving ahead to meet its target of sending a man to space by December 2021, announced ISRO chairman K Sivan Saturday. Addressing the eighth convocation of IIT, Bhubaneswar, Sivan said, “By December 2021 the first Indian will be carried out, by our own rocket, to space. This is our target, everybody at ISRO is working on that.”

ISRO’s ambitious Gaganyaan project aims to send a three-member crew to space for at least seven days. The project was first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his 2018 Independence Day speech.

While the project to send an Indian into space will be carried out by 2021, the Indian space agency aims to carry two unmanned flights before that.

Advertisement

Read | Gaganyaan a major turning point in India’s space programme: Ex-ISRO chairman

“By December 2020, we will have our first unmanned mission of human spaceplane. The second unmanned human space plane, we target for July 2021,” the space chief was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Gaganyaan ISRO, ISRO space Gaganyaan project, Gaganyaan project India ISRO, Indian in space, Indian Express news The Gaganyaan project was first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech in 2018.

The Gaganyaan mission is extremely important for India as it will boost the science and technology capability of the country, Sivan said.

Festive offer

If India does launch the Gaganyaan mission, it will be the fourth nation to do so after the United States, Russia and China. The mission is estimated to cost around Rs 10,000 crore.

Explained | Gaganyan: How to send an Indian into space

Speaking about the Chandrayaan-2 mission, the space agency chief said that the orbiter will provide data for more than seven-and-a-half years. He said except the soft landing part, everything with Chandrayaan-2 went as planned.

Advertisement

Earlier this month, the Indian Air Force had said that it had completed the first level of selecting astronauts for the Gaganyaan mission from its pool of test pilots. According to the Air force, the pilots underwent necessary physical exercise tests, lab investigations, radiological tests, clinical tests and evaluation on various aspects of their psychology.

(With PTI inputs)

First uploaded on: 21-09-2019 at 19:28 IST
Latest Comment
Post Comment
Read Comments
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
close