Gaganyaan Mission: Russia says, 'Ready and looking forward' to train Indian astronauts

Russia said it is "ready and looking forward" to training a team of Indian astronauts for the Gaganyaan mission, the Moscow diplomat Roman Babushkin said on Friday. A team of Indian astronauts will be travelling to Russia in January. At this year's annual press conference, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Sivan had announced that four astronauts have been selected to undergo training in Russia for the Gaganyaan mission.

"A team of Indian astronauts is going to Russia this month. We have very good expertise in Russia on how to train astronauts which we have developed over decades. We are ready and looking forward to sharing what we have with India," Russian deputy ambassador to India, Babushkin, said during a press conference on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's visit to India for the Raisina Dialogue 2020. The four astronauts, shortlisted for the mission, will receive training for 11 months. All the four astronauts selected for the mission are men but their identity cannot be revealed, Union Minister of State (MoS), Jitendra Singh had revealed.

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Gaganyaan Mission

After 11 months of training in Russia, the astronauts will receive module-specific training in India. They will be trained in crew and service module designed by ISRO, learn to operate it, work around it and do simulations. As per the ISRO sources, India's heaviest launch vehicle "Bahubali" GSLV Mark-III will the carry astronauts to space.

The Rs 10,000-crore ambitious project is expected to be launched in 2022, the year of the 75th anniversary of India's Independence. India's heaviest launch vehicle Bahubali GSLV Mark-III will carry the astronauts to space.  The Defence Food Research Laboratory in Mysore have prepared special food packets for astronauts taking part in India's upcoming manned space mission, Gaganyaan. They'll also have a food heater and special containers have been created to help astronauts drink liquids in zero gravity. The food items include South Indian cuisines such as Idli-sambhar, upma, coconut chutney and much more.

Before sending a crew into space, ISRO plans to send two unmanned missions into the orbit - first one in 2020 and the second one in 2021. The entire mission is estimated to approximately cost about Rs 10,000 crore. Gaganyaan was first conceptualized in 2004.

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