Chennai, Oct 17: Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation Dr Madhavan Nair today ruled out the possibility of undertaking a "manned mission" to space saying, such a programme was not on the cards. "We do not find it necessary. The RESOURCESAT-1 launched today was equal to half a dozen people in space for a period of five to six years," he told reporters replying to a question whether there was any programme by Isro to undertake a manned mission similar to that by China yesterday.
Nair said ISRO was going ahead with its first "unmanned mission" to moon within next five years. The mission, 'Chandrayaan', will cost Rs 380 crore and Isro proposed to use PSLV for the planned lunar mission. Improvements with regard to tracking and command control would have to be made before using the PSLV, which had to travel atleast 3.5 lakh km from the Earth.
Nair said the second launch pad in Sriharikota, built at a cost of Rs 400 crore, is expected to be commissioned by the middle of next year. Isro was also planning to use the second launch pad for its future GSLV and PSLV missions and also for the proposed launch of GSLV-mark three.
The Isro was planning atleast three launches every year for the next five years, Nair said.
Bureau Report