Indian Astronauts To Train At Gagarin Cosmonaut Center For Gaganyaan Mission

ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) has announced that it is working towards India's first manned space mission. The organization is calling it Gaganyaan which is slated to launch in 2022. ISRO has already selected the astronauts and now it has been reported that the training session will begin at Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in 2020.

According to senior Russian space official, the training will start from next year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also announced that the Indian astronauts will be trained by Russia. The mission is said to carry three astronauts, these three are picked among the test pilots in the Indian armed forces.

During a joint press meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and PM Modi said that Russia will help Indian astronauts for the Gaganyaan project.

Dmitry Loskutov, Head of Glavcosmos, in conversation with Tass news agency at the Dubai Airshow 2019 said, "The education and training of gaganauts (astronauts) at the Cosmonaut Training Centre are planned to start already next year but this largely depends on the results of the selection by health parameters and the timeframe for the Indian side to decide whom they finally select and send to Russia for training."

According to the reports, on July 1 Roscosmos announced that Glavcosmos and the Human Space Flight Center of ISRO had inked an agreement which says that it will assist Indian astronauts in the medical check-up and training.

On August 22, Dmitry Rogozin, chief of Roscosmos announced that the specialists form Cosmonaut Training Center will select the first batch of Indian astronauts during autumn.

Just to let you know, the Gagarin Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Center was named after the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin who was the first human to travel to the outer space. The space centre ensures proper training, space exploration activities, and safety in space. Currently, there is no information on when exactly the selected astronauts will start their training with the Russian specialists.