India’s first human space mission Gaganyaan, for which four astronauts have been selected, and the first Deep Sea mission, with a crew of three, will both take place by 2025, Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said on Thursday.
Singh, while speaking at a media event, said four astronauts – of which three are Group Captains and one Wing Commander -- have been selected for Gaganyaan. The four group captains are Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan, and Angad Pratap; the wing commander is Shubanshu Shukla.
The Gaganyaan mission aims at sending a manned three-day mission to space, which will orbit 400 km above Earth before returning. Similarly, Samudrayaan', the initiative of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, will be a crewed expedition to a depth of 6,000 m in the central Indian Ocean onboard Matsya6000 -- a manned submersible vehicle developed indigenously.
During the interaction, the minister said “the space sector is limited to launching rockets and satellites but it will also propel growth and positively impact agriculture, and development of infrastructure and communication.”
Besides, he said, land record management, new geospatial policy, new space policy and initiatives such as soil health card, direct benefit transfer and land mapping are being directed to boost farm productivity. On the role of start-ups in the sector, Singh said from just one in 2022, their number has increased to 200 and “many among them have global capacity”.
He also shared that in just a few months over Rs 1,000 crore in private sector investment has come into the space sector.
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