ISRO gearing up for human space flight mission

Ramnath Shenoy

BANGALORE, INDIA: India's dream of sending its own human space flight mission is finally gaining momentum. India has begun the process of building a training centre for astronauts, designing a new launch pad and modifying the rockets as preparations for its ambitious manned flight to space gathers momentum, says a PTI report.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has drawn up an outline for the training centre, which would come up near the Bengaluru International Airport at Devanahally on the city outskirts, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair told PTI here.

Forty acres are already in the possession of the Bangalore-headquartered ISRO, which has approached the state government for an additional 100 acres for the centre.

Nair expects investment for the training centre to be in the range of Rs 600 crore to Rs 700 crore."We have to again establish the launch paunch for the crew with reception and servicing facilities and launcher itself has to be modified to handle the humans.