India makes shortlist of astronauts for first manned space flight

Bengaluru: The first level of selection of Indian astronauts for Mission Gaganyaan has been completed at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine here, the Indian Air Force (IAF) said on Friday.

Gaganyaan is India’s maiden human space flight programme.

The selected pilots had to pass through extensive physical exercise tests, lab investigations, clinical tests, radiological tests and psychology evaluation, the IAF said.

The announcement comes just hours ahead of a scheduled moon landing of an Indian rover, that could make it the first to explore the satellite’s south pole and the fourth to touchdown on its virgin territory without any damage to the vehicle. Modi’s ambitious space plans also include a mission to study the sun next year, another to Venus three years later, and eventually establish its own space station.

Mission Gaganyaan aims to launch an Indian-crewed spacecraft by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) by 2022.

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chairman K. Sivan, has said that Isro is capable of accomplishing this mission within the given time frame.

The Gaganyaan project is worth Rs100 billion (Dh5.11 billion). It was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day speech last year. It involves a three-member Indian crew being sent to space for a period of seven days. The spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km.

Two unmanned and one manned flight will be undertaken as part of the Gaganyaan mission.

Four Indian astronauts will go to Russia by November this year for 15 months of training for this purpose, which will take place at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre. The rigorous training in Russia will be followed by further training back home in India for six to eight months.

India has specialised in low-cost space launches since the early 1960s, when rocket sections were transported by bicycle and assembled by hand inside St. Mary Magdalene Church in Thumba, a fishing village near the tip of the Indian peninsula. Modi announced the manned mission in a dramatic speech on India’s independence day last year, which was reminiscent of US President John F. Kennedy’s announcement in 1961 that pushed Nasa to send a man to the moon.