India Plans Manned Space Mission

India is planning an unmanned moon mission next year, followed by a manned space mission by 2015.

Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, said, “We are trying to develop the technologies which are required for sending a man to space … If everything goes all right we will be able to have a manned mission wherein an astronaut will be orbiting the earth within eight years.”

The moon mission is estimated to cost about $100 million.