New Delhi (NVI): The four astronauts shortlisted for India’s first-ever manned space mission ‘Gaganyaan’ will start their training in Russia from third week of this month, Minister of State for Space Jitendra Singh said today.
The training will be for 11 months, after which these astronauts will receive module-specific training in India, he said.
Gaganyaan is proposed to be launched in 2022 and the astronauts are expected to be in space for at least 7 days.
Singh, who is also Minister of State in the PMO, said all the four astronauts selected for the mission are men but their identities cannot be revealed. According to an earlier plan, a woman was also to be a part of the crew.
Under the module-specific training, the four astronauts will be trained in crew and service module designed by ISRO, learn to operate it, work around and do simulations.
The government has sanctioned Rs 10,000 crore for the Gaganyaan project.
Though the first Indian to go into space was Rakesh Sharma in 1984 but the spacecraft in which he went was not Indian. Therefore, Gaganyaan will be the first of its kind human space mission conceived and developed in India.
