New Delhi: After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that an Indian astronaut will go on a space odyssey by 2022, former ISRO chief and Padma Vibhushan Dr K Kasturirangan on Wednesday said that Indian Space Research Organisation had been 'thinking', 'reading' and 'working on the mission in a limited manner'.
"ISRO has been thinking about it, reading about it and working on it in a limited manner. But then government had been continuously supporting all this kind of a thing. And probably the prime minister decided that it was the right time to commit the nation for it," said Kasturirangan, adding that ISRO is excited that the Prime Minister has cleared this mission.
Hinting that both ISRO and 'Team Modi' were in consultation on Gaganyaan, the former space organisation chief said that "those inputs were already available". "When he made such a statement, obviously the consultation process had resulted in making this announcement. It is not a unilateral declaration," he said.
On training the astronauts for the mission, Kasturirangan said that there is a protocol for such kind of a training, and it is worked according to the complexity of the mission. "Once those objectives are fixed, then correspondingly there will be a training programme," he said.
PM Modi said during his Independence Day speech that when the country celebrates 75th year of Independence in 2022, "and if possible even before, an Indian son or daughter" will undertake a manned space mission on board 'Gaganyaan' "carrying the national flag".
Chandrayaan-1 was India's first lunar probe. It was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation in October 2008 and operated until August 2009.
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