India targets to send humans to space by December 2021: ISRO chief
Bengaluru, Jan 11 (IBNS): Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K. Sivan on Saturday said India has set the target to send astronauts to space by December 2021.
ISRO's Gaganyaan project will make India the fourth country after Russia, US and China to independently send human beings to space.
"The initial training for Gaganyaan will be done in India and advanced training maybe in Russia. Women astronauts will be there on the team. That's our aim," the ISRO chief told reporters.
Chairman Dr K Sivan is addressing the media at Antariksh Bhavan now. He is touching upon all major #ISROMissions scheduled for this year and ahead. pic.twitter.com/uS8dX9Jfhr
— ISRO (@isro) January 11, 2019
The Union Cabinet has approved a budget of Rs 10,000 crore for sending three Indian astronauts to space for a period of seven days. Announcing this last month, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the mission has been named "Gaganyaan".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made the announcement of the project in his Independence Day speech.
The moon mission Chandrayaan-2, an advanced version of the previous Chandrayaan-1 mission about 10 years ago, is in the works.
"Right now Chandrayaan is scheduled from March 25 to April end. Most probably, the normal targeted date is April middle," Sivan said.
picture caption: ISRO chief K. Sivan speaks to the media on Friday.
Source: @isro on Twitter
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