Bangalore: India has not made any offer to
Russia to purchase Soyuz-TMA spacecraft to undertake the
country`s own human space flight slated for 2015-16, a top
space department official said.
"No, that`s all what the newspapers write," Indian Space
Research Organisation chairman K Radhakrishnan told PTI here
on reports in a section of the Russian media which talked
about the "offer".
Russian reports also said China had received technical
documentation on various Soyuz-TM systems and used them to
develop its own Shenzhou manned spacecraft.
Radhakrishnan said, "We have a (human space flight)
programme," adding, ISRO is going to put two Indians in an
orbit around the earth.
"That`s our plan. Studies have been conducted. There is
a pre-project which is already going on to study some of the
critical technologies. And we have a project report which we
have given to the Government (for approval)," he said.
ISRO officials said the proposal for undertaking the
human space flight to carry humans to a low earth orbit and
ensure their safe return to earth has been prepared and
submitted to the government for approval.
The space department has already carried out a detailed
study on technical and managerial issues related to
undertaking manned space missions with an aim to building and
demonstrating the country`s capability.
The programme envisages development of a fully autonomous
orbital vehicle carrying two or three crew-members to a 300 km
earth orbit.
PTI
