Russia and France to train Indian astronauts, medical support staff for ISRO's Gaganyaan manned space mission

NEW DELHI: Russia and France will be helping India with its manned space mission 'Gaganyaan' that will be sent in the year 2022. While the Russian space agency Roscosmos will training 4 Indian astronauts of which 3 will be selected to go onboard India's human space mission programme, France will be training their medical support personnel. 

Training of medical support personnel will be carried out in France and in India.

Glavkosmos, which is a subsidiary of Roscosmos and manages the international space project, has signed a contract with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for training the four Indian astronauts at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.

The development comes in the backdrop of Nation Security Advisor Ajit Doval's Moscow visit during which he met Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin.

"The sides discussed possible Indian crewed flight carrier rocket aerodynamic tests, as well as piloted vehicle and crew rescue system. It is planned to reach an agreement until the end of August 2019," a release from Roscosmos said. 

"Russia and India are expecting to negotiate the contracts to supply windows, crew seats and spacesuits for the Indian crewed mission," it added.

France and India meanwhile announced to further their space cooperation during PM Modi's state visit to the country that is underway.

"France and India desire to deepen their space cooperation so as to meet new challenges together, whether it concerns planetary exploration or human spaceflight", India France joint statement released on Thursday said.

The Rs 10,000 crore Gaganyaan project was announced by PM Modi during his Independence day speech on August 15th, 2018 and involves 3 members Indian crew being sent to space for a period of seven days. 

After this manned mission, India will become the 4th country after Russia, US and China to send humans in space.