Reportedly indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief Dr K Sivan on wednesday said four astronauts have been selected for India’s first manned mission, Gaganyaan, and that their training will start in the third week of January. Gaganyaan aims to send a three-member crew to space for a period of five to seven days. Meanwhile the spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400km.
The isro chief said “We have identified the four astronauts, they were sent to russia for medical checkup. They will undergo training in Russia". Accordingly an advisory committee has also been formed for Gaganyaan and the training of the astronauts in russia was finalised after prime minister narendra modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin in september last year. Furthermore this emerged after talks between prime minister narendra modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin as they decided to step up cooperation in the field of outer space.
Moreover Gaganyaan is reported to have two unmanned and one manned flight to space. Sivan said “We will be sending a humanoid as part of unmanned mission. Six science experiments will be conducted, related to microgravity and bioscience". Perhaps Chandrayaan-3 will be a repeat of Chandrayaan-2, and will link to the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter already in space. P Veeramuthuvel, who was the associate director will be the project director for Chandrayaan-3.
