Russia ready to help India with manned space mission: Envoy

NEWDELHI: Russia stands ready to help India with its first manned space mission in 2022, especially in developing the launcher and training of personnel, Russian ambassador Nikolay Kudashev said on Monday.

The possibility of cooperation for the mission was explored in bilateral talks and “the probability of Indian astronauts going to…the Space City is very high”, he said.

Referring to Russia’s experience in space missions over the past 60 years, Kudashev said there were different dimensions to the cooperation with India.

“One is the development of the relevant launcher, the exploratory unit, the living (quarters) of the team, the safety measures, the communication measures and the preparation of cosmonauts for a long flight,” he said on the sidelines of an event at the Russian embassy where a portrait of Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian man in space, was unveiled. Kudashev said a MoU on human spaceflight was signed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, during the annual summit between the two countries in October.

Gaganyaan is the name for India’s first indigenous manned space mission, which plans to put a person into space in the next four years. If successful, India will be the fourth country to launch a manned space mission after Russia, the US and China.

Sharma said space travel has become safer, but physical and physiological training continues to be a challenge. “I’m quite sure we will be able to do (the training) initially perhaps with some consultancy and later by ourselves,” he said.

“It will take a while for infrastructure to come into place...”