ISRO Chairman Dr S Somanath, in an interview with news channel NDTV, said that ISRO would want to develop and is in the process of gaining "human space related capability" and that the whole mission is targetted to feed into Gaganyaan programme. Replying to a question if the ISRO would be happy to send PM Modi to Space (station) in the future, the ISRO chief said that "he would be happy" if that happens. However, he added that he would wait for that day.
"There was a discussion I had with the administrator of NASA, who is the head of NASA and both of us had discussed the possibility of Prime Minister Narendra Modi becoming the first head of state to visit the International Space Station and he is also the minister of space and the Prime Minister. After that discussion, Bill Nelson (NASA administration) had said NASA would be happy to have a head of a state visit the International Space Station. Whatever happened, did you discuss that with the Prime Minister, has he declined, or do you think, if he wants to go, how should he go?" the reporter questioned.
"As currently as chair of the space organisation, I am limited by the availability of the trained astronauts whom I can put in front of the possible candidates for this mission, so that is limited those only those four people. So I have to select out of those two which went through a scrutiny and review to select those two people and they have been proposed. On any other candidate including VIPs for such missions cannot be considered at this moment because it is a highly skilled and trained operation which requires many years and months of preparation and I believe that will be the guiding space in this case," replied S Somanath.
The reporter persisted and further questioned, "If he decides to go, would you be happy to accomodate him?"
"Of course I would be very happy to do that. But that's not the point here, he has much more responsible jobs to do," replied Somanath.
"Whenever the head of a state has to fly to an International Space Station of that nation, it must be on our vehicle and on our land. I will wait for the Gaganyaan to be ready for that day. All of us will be very proud if we have that ability to confidently send that a stateman to space (sic)," the ISRO chief said in the interview.
