Busy Year Ahead For ISRO - Will Launch Chandrayaan-2 In April, Prepare Gaganyaan Manned Mission
The Gaganyaan project by the space agency will make India the fourth nation to independently send humans into space announced ISRO chief Dr K Sivan. The government had cleared a funding of Rs 10000 crore for the programme. The chief also spoke about Indians going to American space agency NASA instead of rendering their services to ISRO.
The Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO set itself the target to send astronauts to space by December 2021. The Gaganyaan project by the space agency will make India the fourth nation to independently send humans into space announced ISRO chief Dr K Sivan.
¡°The initial training for Gaganyaan will be done in India and advanced training may be in Russia. Women astronauts will be there on the team. That's our aim,¡± Sivan was quoted by ANI as saying.
The Gaganyaan project was announced by PM Modi on Independence Day last year and union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad last month had said that three Indian astronauts will be sent to space for up to seven days by 2022 as part of the Gaganyaan. The government had cleared a funding of Rs 10,000 crore for the programme.
ISRO Chief K Sivan: The inital 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. pic.twitter.com/rKJbfKfmtV
¡ª ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2019
The ISRO chief also said that the target of sending two unmanned test mission to space is December 2020 and July 2021.
ISRO Chief K Sivan: We will set up six incubation and research centres across the country. We will bring the Indian students to ISRO. Why do the Indian students need to go to NASA? pic.twitter.com/nOdqSeWbsp
¡ª ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2019
The chief also spoke about Indians going to American space agency NASA instead of rendering their services to ISRO.
¡°We will set up six incubation and research centres across the country. We will bring the Indian students to ISRO. Why do the Indian students need to go to NASA?¡±
Apart from Gaganyaan, ISRO will also be looking at launching its second Moon mission - Chandrayaan - 2 this year. The launch is set to take place in late March or early April, once the complete testing is finished. The mission was earlier planned for an early 2019 launch. The mission will have an orbiter which will circle the moon for a year. The lander part of the mission will have a rover that will be active for about 14 days on the moon service and cover a distance of 500 meters.
ISRO's RLV - Reusable Launch Vehicle will also be flight tested this year and is important for the space organisation's future as it looks to reduce costs for future launches.
2019 is looking to be a busy year for ISRO with a total of 32 missions planned this year.
