Indian candidates for becoming astronauts to crew Indian spaceship Gaganyaan into orbit have completed a one-year training course in Russia’s Zvyozdny gorodok (Star City) near Moscow, the head of the Russian state space corporation, Dmitry Rogozin, said on Monday.
“In the evening we met with Indian gaganauts [Indian term for astronauts], who had completed their training at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. We also discussed with the [Indian] ambassador the future bilateral space projects,” Rogozin said on his Telegram channel.
The contract for the training of four Indian astronauts was signed on June 27, 2019, between Russian launch service provider Glavcosmos and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
The training began on February 10, 2020, but it was temporarily interrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The first manned space flight of India’s Gaganyaan project, which hopes to take Indian astronauts to space, is expected to take place no earlier than 2023. The Gaganyaan mission also envisages two unmanned flights before the launch of a crewed mission.
