Back in 2014, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) made a mark in the space race with its low-cost Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also known as Mangalyaan. Since then, ISRO achieved many feats that put the country on the map when it comes to space missions and launches like the PSLV launch where 104 satellites were deployed. Now, the space agency is aiming to send an Indian astronaut on a manned mission in space for no less than seven days by 2022, while keeping the costs under Rs 10,000 crore. While this seems like a stretch, one must note that the Mangalyaan mission was pulled off on a budget of $74 million, which is way lesser than the $671 million budget of the NASA Maven mission. Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the four-year target for ISRO and the agency’s chairman, K. Sivan told PTI, “We can achieve the 2022 target that the PM has announced. ISRO already has a crew module, the crew escape system was tested this year, and we have a launch vehicle. Not much more is needed as far as the technology is concerned.” Ahead of the actual launch in 2022, ISRO will launch two unmanned missions using the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark-III. ISRO is said to be working on an orbital vehicle to take the crew to the Low Earth orbit and has already tested the crew module and the crew escape system in July this year. The crew escape system was tested at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. It is a critical technology, which is designed to quickly pull the crew module, along with the astronauts, to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in case the launch is aborted. Additionally, from September, ISRO aims at sending 31 satellites to space till next December and a total of 50 over the next three years. You can read more about it here.
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