Human spaceflight test flights could be within a year: ex-ISRO chief

HYDERABAD

Indian human space flight programme or ‘Gaganyaan’ will reach a decisive state when test flights to evaluate the safety and reliability of the systems developed could be taken up within a year, said former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Kasturirangan on Thursday.

“Lot of work has gone into this human flight programme and once the test flights are successful, it won’t take much time to put Indians into space. Within the next decade there will also be missions to Moon when we will try to land a rover and missions to study other planetary systems,” he informed.

The space scientist was speaking at the B.M.Birla science prize awards function held at the G.P. Birla Archeological Astronomical and Scientific Research Institute (GPBAASRI). The award is given to young scientists of less than 40 years of age for research done in the country. It carries a citation and cash award of 1 lakh.

Recipients this year are: Anish Ghosh for mathematics from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai; Ayan Datta for chemistry from the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Sciences, Kolkata; Sanjib Kumar Agarwalla for physics from Institute of Physics, Bhubneshwar; Biman B.Mandal from Indian Institute of Technology,Guwahati and Mahak Sharma from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali, sharing the prize for biology.

Prof. Kasturirangan, who also received the ‘GP Birla Lifetime Achievement Award’ from the hands of institute chairperson Nirmala Birla, said Indian space research is in for “exciting” programmes in trying to reach the frontiers of inter-stellar world with missions to study the Sun, Moon, Mars, other planets besides the human mission programme,

In the next 50 years, the country is well poised technologically to take part in advanced study of space, actively collaborating with other countries in launch of new giant telescopes to look into origins of universe and search for life in other planets in other galaxies.

He was all praise for the Birla family for investing in science while upholding the country’s art, culture and heritage besides their contribution in the fields of education and health. Earlier, ISRO-National Remote Sensing Centre director Prakash Chauhan urged other “industry champions” to invest in scientific research and technology.