Gaganyaan: ISRO selects four astronauts for India's first manned mission

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced on Wednesday that four astronauts have been identified for India's first manned mission to space, Gaganyaan.

Speaking to the media, ISRO chief K Sivan said that the training of these astronauts required for this project will begin in the third week of January in Russia. The Gaganyaan mission is focused on sending astronauts to space for a minimum of seven days by 2022 in an orbital spacecraft.

Russia is backing India in its first manned mission to space—Gaganyaan which will be sent by 2022 by training the astronauts.

The Rs 10,000 crore Gaganyaan project was announced by PM Modi during his Independence day speech on August 15th, 2018. After this manned mission, India will become the 4th country after Russia, US and China to send humans in space. 

Sivan also said that the central government has green-lit the Chandrayan-3 lunar mission, and the preparations for the project is in full swing.

"Government has approved Chandrayan-3, the project is ongoing. The land acquisition for a second spaceport has been initiated and the port will be in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu." [sic] Sivan was quoted by ANI.

The third lunar mission will have a configuration similar to Chandrayaan-2, equipped with the lander and a rover, and will land on the same location where the Vickram-lander for the previous mission crashed.

Speaking about the accomplishments of the Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission, the ISRO chief said, "We have made good progress on Chandrayan-2, even though we could not land successfully, the orbiter is still functioning, its going to function for the next 7 years to produce science data."

ISRO's second moon mission, Chandrayaan-2 had three main parts – orbiter, lander (Vikram) and rover (Pragyan). In the last-minute snag, a communication link between the lander and the orbiter snapped as the former was descending towards the moon's south pole.

Vikram Lander was supposed to make a soft landing on the moon on September 7 but just minutes before the landing, ISRO lost contact with the Lander. Later, NASA located the debris of the Vikram Lander with the help of a Chennai-based IT professional.

However, the orbiter has been in contact with ISRO and is beaming back critical information.

After the loss of contact with Vikram, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had encouraged the country's space scientists to persevere in their endeavours, terming ISRO's attempt a "great feat".