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Bangalore, Oct. 25 Days after launching its lunar mission, ISRO has started making moves for its next big project, of putting an Indian in space.

It plans to start an astronaut training centre in Bangalore and a special Rs 600-crore third launch pad at Sriharikota to support a manned mission planned for around 2015, according to the ISRO Chairman, Mr G. Madhavan Nair.

The special human-friendly vehicle and capsule would be developed by the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thiruvananthapuram.

ISRO has proposed to send two Indians into a low-Earth orbit. The Space Commission has approved the human mission and ISRO now awaits the Cabinet clearance for the project, estimated at Rs 10,000-12,000 crore.

ISRO has 40 acres beyond the Devanahalli airport. It may need another 100 acres nearby, Mr Nair said.

Mr Nair was speaking to newspersons during a visit of the Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa, to ISRO’s Deep Space Network site at Byalalu near here. The Chief Minister honoured scientists involved in the Chandrayaan-1 launch, which took off on October 22.

The Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was moved to a higher orbit of 74,715 km in the wee hours of Saturday. Over the next days, the Chandrayaan-1’s orbit will be moved further. It will be moved closer towards Moon as the scientists raise it to a distance of 1.66 lakh km, 2.97 lakh km from Earth and on October 29 to 3.84 lakh km.

From then on, it will take 11 days, i.e. around November 8, to get close to Moon, another 3,000 km away, ISRO’s spokesman said.

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