World | India
Space agency's manned mission within 7 years
India will be in a position to carry out a manned space mission within seven years from now, a top official of the Indian space agency said on Monday.
- IANS
- Published: 00:00 April 29, 2008
Sriharikota: India will be in a position to carry out a manned space mission within seven years from now, a top official of the Indian space agency said on Monday.
Addressing the media after the successful launch of ten satellites in one go, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chairman G. Madhavan Nair said: "The government has given us pre-project funding of Rs950 million (Dh86,75 million) for the manned mission and we have initiated necessary activities."
Experiments
Asked about the need for a manned mission when tests could be conducted remotely, he said: "Today the US, Russia and China have a capability to have a manned mission. We cannot be left behind in the space race. Further, man's presence is absolutely necessary in a spacecraft for conducting some experiments."
The manned mission will be in Isro's second and more powerful rocket geo synchronous launch vehicle.
"We have to study issues like crew module, emergency escape system, provision of all-round outside view from the spacecraft for the crew. These are complex systems that ISRO has to tackle," said K. Radhakrishnan, director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, on the complexities involved.
Unmanned rockets
Isro will first put out three unmanned rockets to test the systems before sending a rocket with a man. That aside, Isro will be launching five to six rockets per year - all with multiple missions, Nair said.
"In terms of missions -satellite launches per rocket - during the next five years we will be doing around 70," he remarked.
Concerning forthcoming commercial launches, two are being negotiated.
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