Bengaluru sources stated that in the first baby step of the giant leap of Indians voyage into space, prospective crew members who will be picked for 'Gaganyaan', the country's first human space flight program, will commence training later this month as soon as Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the IAF sign an agreement.
Dr. K. Sivan, Chairman ISRO told "It (agreement) could happen next week, and then the course of selection and training will begin. Furthermore in about a year and a half or two years, six crew members will be selected from about 100 astronaut candidates. Meanwhile those six members, of whom three will make it to the first flight while the remaining three will be on standby, will be the toppers in a three phase selection and training program".
Moreover he said those who make the final cut would join the space agency as a member of staff in order to get familiar with the first mission to space, the experiments to be carried out during the seven day outing in space, and get hands on experience of technologies involved in 'Gaganyaan'. Apparently the training schedule in two phases would be worked out by the IAF's Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) in Bengaluru while the last phase would be conducted in collaboration with Russian or French space agencies. He added "Three of our people (ISRO) have visited aerospace medicine facilities in France but we have not signed any agreement with CNES (the French space agency) as other countries like Russia have also offered to help us during the last phase of training”.
