India's first ‘manned’ mission to space may have women too

• ISRO chief confirms that they want women astronauts to be a part of the three member-crew
  
• Gaganyaan will take off in December, 2021
  
• The Indian government had earlier approved a $1.4 billion budget for the same, which could make the mission the cheapest in history

India is set to launch its first crewed space mission – Gaganyaan – in December 2021 and ISRO chief K Sivan has announced that woman astronauts could be a part of the three-member team.

In a press conference held in Bengaluru, the ISRO chief confirmed the timeline for the space mission while adding that both men and women are being trained.

However, while the initial part of the training will be done in India, the advanced training will take place abroad.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had initially announced Gaganyaan, a seven-day low Earth orbit mission, as a part of his Independence Day speech. India also gave a go-ahead for a $1.4 billion budget to send three people into space for seven days.

China’s space mission Shenzhou program had cost them $2.3 billion whereas US in 1969 had reportedly spent $110 billion in current values.

With this move, India will become the fourth nation in the world to send humans to space, ranking right after US, Russia and China.

It could possibly also be the cheapest space mission, with the entire project from technology development to flight hardware realization and infrastructure to be done within the approved budget.

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