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India plans to send two
men to space by 2015
By
Venkatachari Jagannathan and Fakir Balaji
Sriharikota
(Andhra Pradesh) Oct 22 (IANS) The Indian space agency that
started the country's maiden unmanned moon mission Wednesday
is planning to send two Indians into space by 2015, said a
top official.
"We
are planning to carry two human beings into the space in our
first manned space mission. The project report has been cleared
by the Space Commission. The project outlay is Rs.120 billion
($2.44 billion)," G. Madhavan Nair, chairman, Indian
Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told reporters here Wednesday.
He
said the manned mission would be using India's second rocket
- the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).
"The
manned mission will be an indigenous effort. However we are
not averse to cooperating with any other space agency,"
he added.
The
Indian space agency has to cross several hurdles before it
can send a man to space.
Firstly
it has to stabilise GSLV and also master the space recovery
capsule technology.
The
rocket as well as the space capsule in which the humans would
return has to get a specified rating, technically called the
human rating, so that it doesn't get overheated during its
return to the atmosphere.
"The
failure rate in such vehicles should not be more than 1 in
100 missions," Nair pointed out.
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