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India’s proposed human spaceflight programme that generated considerable excitement in the second half of the last decade is off the priority list of ISRO, with the mission being ruled out before 2017.
The ambitious venture that could have electrified the entire space programme and given New Delhi a vantage position as a human space transportation provider after Russia and China does not figure in the Space Department’s 12th plan (2012-2017). The US is out of business with decommissioning of its space shuttle programme.
Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation K Radhakrishnan says “very good progress” has been made in terms of developing critical technologies for the mission (which has been on the drawing board since 2002) but refuses to commit a time-frame for the launch.
“We have not declared it as a programme. We must have a reliable, man-rated vehicle (GSLV). Both are important”, Radhakrishnan, also Secretary in the Department of Space and Chairman of Space Commission, told PTI here.
“We are not going to see the human spaceflight as a programme in the 12th plan. We will see may be later. It has to be seen after that“.
“Even for you to talk about it, you have to have certain new technologies which are involved in the human space flight programme. That’s what we are addressing“.
The programme’s objective is to undertake a mission to carry a crew of two or three members to 300 km Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and return them safely to a predefined destination on Earth.
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