After successfully placing the unmanned spacecraft Chandrayaan-I in the lunar orbit, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to send a manned mission into the space. While making the announcement of the proposed plan, the chairman of ISRO, G. Madhavan Nair stated that executing manned moon mission is not an easy task. He said that the first and foremost task will be to send an Indian astronaut on manned mission to space who will orbit the earth and return. The government of India is yet to sanction this plan.

 

According to Nair, the plan is likely to be achieved by 2015. The ISRO chairman was attending a reception ceremony accorded to him for the successful launch of the Chandrayaan-1. Nair also stressed on the fact that India's manned mission should get ready by 2020 when US and China will come up with their moon mission. He said that in order to achieve the plan quickly, country's space mission needs to be boosted up. The ISRO chairman also informed about the possible launch of Aditya, a mission to study the solar system from the earth's orbit.

 

ISRO has recently achieved major success in its first lunar mission as the moon impact probe (MIP) of Chardrayaan-1 was successfully launched on lunar surface on November 14, 2008. The probe was released from the spacecraft which was placed about 100 km above moon. The landing of MIP on lunar surface has made India the fourth country in the world to land a man-made object on moon. Now with the plan of launching manned mission, India is likely to achieve major break-through in space research and exploration.