ISRO preparing report on Manned Mission

Bangalore, Nov 15: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is currently preparing a report on India embarking on a manned mission to space, after scientists and technocrats recently gave an unanimous approval to the project.

ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair told sources here today that a lot of debate should take place and several questions need to be answered before the project was finalised. ''We are engaging our teams to find the answers and at the end of it, we will convert it into reality,'' he said.

He said focus would be laid on safety aspects, mainly on the safe return of the Indian astronaut. Besides, various facilities need to be established and ISRO needed some time to finalise the project.

A day-long meeting, convened here by ISRO on November seven, gave a go ahead to the mission, likely to be realised in seven to eight years at a cost of over Rs 10,000 crore.

The meeting was held after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sought a national debate on such a mission after ISRO made a detailed presentation on the Indian space endeavour recently.

Earlier, the ISRO chief delivered the inaugural address at the All India Seminar on 'English Language Education through Satellite' at the Regional Institute of English here.

UNI