India's manned space mission in December 2021: ISRO
Bengaluru, Jan 11: India's maiden manned space mission 'Gaganyaan' is set for December 2021 launch and is likely to include a woman astronaut, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman K Sivan said Friday.
Gearing up for the mission, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the ISRO has set up a new centre to facilitate the manned voyage involving a three-member crew, he said.
"We have put everything in place. Gaganyaan has highest priority for 2019. We are planning to have first unmanned mission in December 2020 and second for July 2021. Once we complete this the manned mission will happen in December 2021. The entire team is geared up to achieve this target," Sivan said.
The Union Cabinet gave its nod for the Rs 9,023 crore programme recently, he said, briefing reporters about the achievements of the city-headquartered ISRO in the previous year and the future programmes.
In his Independence Day address last year, Modi had announced that the mission would be undertaken by 2022 using ISRO's own capabilities.
"We have resolved that by 2022, when India celebrates 75 years of Independence or maybe even before that, certainly some of our young boys and girls will unfurl the Tricolour in space," he had said in his speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort.
To a question, the ISRO chief said, "We want women astronauts also should be there. That is our aim. In my opinion, we have to train both men and women. The PM has told brother and sister (boys and girls). We will be happy to do that but it involves training and other things."
He said a major expansion was in the offing with the launch of Gaganyaan.
"There are two aspects to Gaganyaan engineering and human. This is a major expansion because it is not only launching human into the space but a space station. Human programme is a major turning point," Sivan said.
He said the objective of the mission is to carry a three-member crew to low earth orbit and return them safely to a predefined destination on earth.
Sivan said ISRO has launched the Human Space Flight Centre to take care of all the things related to the manned space programme.
The centre will have senior scientist Unnikrishnan Nair as its director while the project director would be Dr R Hutton, the ISRO chief said.
He said the crew members for Gaganyaan would be from India and include one from the Indian Air Force.
Gaganyaan initial training will be in the country but advanced training might be abroad, maybe in Russia, Sivan said.
On successful completion of the mission, India would become the fourth nation in the world to achieve the feat, he said.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
