BANGALORE,
India -The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), with help from Russia,
hopes to join the ranks of nations capable of independently launching
astronauts into space around 2015 and has revealed the designs for its first
orbiting crew capsule.
In its
maiden manned mission, ISRO's largely
autonomous 3-ton capsule will orbit the Earth at 248 miles (400 km) in
altitude for up to seven days with a two-person crew on board, ISRO chairman G.
Madhavan Nair announced Jan. 3 at the Indian Science Congress held in Shillong.
The capsule will be designed to carry three people, and a planned upgraded
version will be equipped with a rendezvous and docking capability, he
said.
ISRO
spokesman S. Satish told Space News Jan. 10 that the program is
estimated to cost about 100 billion rupees ($2 billion) over an
eight-year period dating back to 2007. The manned mission was formally
proposed to the government in 2006.
Although
full-mission funding has yet to be approved, Satish said preliminary work has
already begun using 950 million rupees ($19.4 million) allocated for the effort
in ISRO's 40.7 billion rupee ($834 million) budget for 2007-2008.
The
necessary mission infrastructure includes a new launch pad at ISRO's Satish
Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Satish said. Another key facility is an
astronaut training center to be located in Bangalore.
As a
precursor to manned spaceflights, ISRO launched and recovered intact a 1,212-pound
(550-kg) space capsule in January 2007, demonstrating its capability to
develop heat-resistant materials necessary for atmospheric re-entry. India also
launched a landmark moon probe, Chandrayaan-1, into lunar orbit last year.
But several
key capabilities have yet to be developed, including a man-rated launcher
featuring safety and reliability enhancements, life support systems, rescue and
recovery systems, a robotic manipulator, and new mission-management and control
systems, Satish said.
Satish said
the astronaut capsule would launch atop a modified version of ISRO's Geosynchronous
Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark 2, currently under development. The
GSLV Mark 2 features an indigenously developed cryogenic upper-stage engine;
the Mark 1 variant currently in use has a Russian-supplied upper stage engine.
The first test launch of the standard GSLV Mark 2 launcher is scheduled for
this year.
Satish said
ISRO's human spaceflight program will benefit from assistance provided by the
Russian Federal Space Agency, Roskosmos. The
cooperative arrangement was sealed in an accord signed Dec. 5 by Nair and
Roskosmos Director-General Anatoly Perminov during a state visit to India
by Russian President Dimitri Medvedev.
Under the
accord, an Indian cosmonaut will fly aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2013
ahead of ISRO's planned 2015 mission, Satish said.
Roskosmos
will also help in crew selection and training and in construction of ISRO's
orbiter vehicle.
Russia and
India have a long history of space-related collaboration. In 1984, Rakesh
Sharma became the first Indian in space, flying to the then-Soviet Union's Salyut-7
space station aboard a Soyuz capsule.
Today only
Russia, the United States and China are capable of independently launching
astronauts. China joined the exclusive club in 2003 using a capsule that was
developed with Russian assistance.
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