21.12.08

Second Indian in space in 2013


An Isro staffer will be the second Indian after Rakesh Sharma to fly into space when India and Russia launch a joint manned space mission around 2013. The flight will be a precursor to India shooting off its own manned space mission from Sriharikota between 2014 and 2015. Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams were two other astronauts of Indian origin who had flown into space. While Chawla’s flight ended in a disaster as her space shuttle Columbia crashed and killed seven crew on board, Williams returned safely logging the longest hours for women space travellers.Isro officials recalled that in the 80s two Isro scientists—P Radhakrishnan and N C Bhatt—were chosen jointly by the space agency and Nasa to fly in a space shuttle and place an Insat satellite in the orbit. The project was scrapped following the Challenger disaster in January 1986. Right now, Isro has staff qualified to fly into space. So, the agency experts are expected to choose from their own pool the next astronaut who’ll take the flight.Isro chairman Madhavan Nair has been repeatedly quoted as saying that India can’t afford to lag behind in the Asian space race as China has already sent people to space and Japan, too, is not far behind. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the Russian manned space mission was signed in New Delhi during the recent visit of Russian President Medvedev Dmitry. “The person chosen for this mission will undergo training at Star City near Moscow. The advantage of this flight is that it will give us an exposure to various aspects of launching a human space flight, including the critical training aspects. It will go a long way in helping us to plan a manned space programme from Indian soil,’’ an Isro official said. When India launches its own manned space flight from Sriharikota, the spacecraft will fly into the low earth orbit (LEO) 2,000 km above the earth. A formal go-ahead from the Centre is now awaited for the project. It is being described as a precursor to an Indian manned flight to moon around 2020. This venture is expected to have a two-man crew and the preliminary studies for designing the spacecraft have already been initiated at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvanathanapuram. Russia is also participating in the second Indian moon mission, “Chandrayaan-II’’ that is slated for take off between 2010 and 2012. India and Russia will jointly design and develop the lander and rover for this lunar mission which is expected to cost Rs 425 crore.

No comments: