Spaceflight

A detailed feasibility proposal for the first Indian manned spaceflight mission has been submitted for approval to the New Delhi government by its Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The proposal gives a timeframe of 2014-15 for the first flight of a 4,000kg (8,800lb) manned capsule into a low-Earth orbit of 400km (248 miles) using the proposed three-stage, cryogenic propellant fuelled Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle MkIII rocket.

ISRO, in association with the Indian air force's Institute of Aviation Medicine, is planning to set up a facility in Bangalore to train potential Indian astronauts.

The organisation is working on its robotic Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission, set for launch in March or April 2008, and is to investigate making the Chandrayaan-2 mission a Moon lander rather than an orbiter.

"We will be finalising the nature of the mission in about a year's time. So all the valuable contributions by way of suggestions would be welcome from you all," ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair told the Indian scientific community.

He added that the agency now has the capability to launch a 500kg orbiter to Mars, which if launched could contribute to international efforts to identify preferable Martian outpost locations.

The ISRO robotic mission roadmap includes an asteroid fly-by mission or an impactor that would ram into a near-Earth object in the second half of the next decade.