Isro to send humans to space in 7 years

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) says it plans to send two humans into orbit in the next seven years.

This is part of a Rs 12,400-crore project it has sent to the government for approval. The Planning Commission has already approved the plan, says Isro Chairman G Madhavan Nair. Meanwhile, 2009 is going to be a year of “fireworks” for Isro, he says. Four more launches are scheduled in 2009 and the Chandrayaan-II moon launch in 2011-12 (with Russian collaboration).

Nair said the government had made an interim approval of Rs 90 crore for a Human Space Mission. This will be the first installment to train astronauts, set up a launch pad, for handling the crew, mission control system, technologies and hardware.

“We will be sending two humans to orbit, 270 km away from the Earth, in seven years,” he said. “We will be launching Oceansat II, Gsat IV and Resourcesat and others. The indigenous cryogenic engine will be inducted this year,” he added.

The launches are scheduled from June. Chandrayaan was launched at end-2008. Nair said it was doing well, sending pictures for the past six months. “The Chandrayaan-II launch plan is in full swing.”

A rocket will carry one or two small vehicles and land these on the moon. These machines will do an analysis of the samples and send back the data. Currently, Chandrayaan sends only pictures but doesn’t do any analysis.