iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
India’s Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh, said the country is set to witness the first human in space and deep sea by 2025. Singh made the statement at an event held in the national capital on Thursday, July 4.
“Four astronauts — three Group Captains and one Wing Commander — have been selected for India’s human space mission Gaganyaan,” the minister said. The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Gaganyaan mission aims to send a manned three-day mission to space, which will orbit 400 kms above Earth and will return.
The four members from the Indian Air Force — Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan, and Angad Pratap, and wing commander Shubanshu Shukla — have been selected for the mission, slated for 2025.
“India’s Deep-Sea mission will send three Indians to the deep sea in 2025,” the lawmaker said. Known as ‘Samudrayaan’, the initiative of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) will be a crewed expedition to a depth of 6,000 m in the central Indian Ocean onboard Matsya6000 — a manned submersible vehicle which has been developed indigenously.
The Science and Technology Minister also recalled the recent progress in the space sector and shared the path of India’s vision.
He noted that beyond launching rockets and satellites, the space sector will also propel growth and positively impact agriculture, infrastructure, communication, healthcare, etc.
“In 2022, we had just one space start-up, and in 2024, after opening the space sector for private participation, we have nearly 200 start-ups, and many among them have global capacity,” Singh said.
He also shared that in just a few months INR 1,000 crore of private sector investment has come into the space sector.