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India's dream to send astronauts into space received a boost when the planning commission of the country approved a £1.7-billion plan to launch the first manned mission by 2015. Under the proposed manned mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be planning to send two astronauts into orbit 172 miles (275 km) above the Earth for seven days.
According to deputy chairman of the planning commission, Montek Singh, watching the grand success of ISRO during country's first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, the commission has decided to give its nod for the new proposal. As the planning commission has approved the proposal for manned mission, it remains only a formality for the union cabinet to sign the plan.
Montek Singh informed that under the proposed plan, ISRO will launch an unmanned flight in 2013-14 and a manned mission by 2014-15. The launch of Chandrayaan-1 in October last year has placed India into the elite club of countries involved in lunar research. India now stands beside countries like United States, Russia, Japan and China.
The government of India has increased its budget for this year by 27 per cent to Rs 44.6 billion rupees which gave a boost to ISRO's ambitious plans. ISRO will spend Rs1.75 billion of the total budget on training astronauts and other space science personnel.
