India - Plans to send 2 men to space by 2015

SRIHARIKOTA/ANDHRA PRADESH: The Indian space agency that started the country's maiden unmanned moon mission Wednesday is planning to send two Indians
into space by 2015, said a top official.

"We are planning to carry two human beings into the space in our first manned space mission. The project report has been cleared by the Space Commission. The project outlay is Rs.120 billion ($2.44 billion)," G. Madhavan Nair, chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told reporters here Wednesday.

He said the manned mission would be using India's second rocket - the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

"The manned mission will be an indigenous effort. However we are not averse to cooperating with any other space agency," he added.

The Indian space agency has to cross several hurdles before it can send a man to space.

Firstly it has to stabilise GSLV and also master the space recovery capsule technology.

The rocket as well as the space capsule in which the humans would return has to get a specified rating, technically called the human rating, so that it doesn't get overheated during its return to the atmosphere.

"The failure rate in such vehicles should not be more than 1 in 100 missions," Nair pointed out.