India and France announce 'Gaganyaan', ISRO's first human space mission
India and France today announced a working group for Gaganyaan, ISRO's first manned mission announced by PM Narendra Modi on Independence Day. The announcement was made at the Bengaluru Space Expo by French space agency (CNES) President Jean-Yves Le Gall. The mission would make India one of the world's four countries after Russia, the US, and China, to launch a manned space flight.
"ISRO and CNES, the French space agency, will be combining their expertise in fields of space medicine, astronaut health monitoring, life support, radiation protection, space debris protection, and personal hygiene systems," Gall said. India plans to send three humans to space before 2022.
Engineering teams have already begun discussions and it is envisioned that infrastructure such as CADMOS center for development of microgravity applications and space operations or the MEDES space clinic will be used for training of future Indian astronauts, as well as the exchange of specialist personnel, Gall said. ISRO plans to conduct experiments on microgravity through its astronauts.
French-Indian space cooperation spans in areas of climate monitoring, with a fleet of joint satellites devoted to research and operational applications. They also have plans to work on Mars, Venus, and asteroids. Gall said, "CNES is especially proud to be working on this endeavor alongside ISRO to share the experience it has acquired from the first French human spaceflights to Thomas Pesquet's Proxima mission."
