The ‘Gaganyaan’ programme, that was announced in August this year was cleared by the Cabinet on Friday.
The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Gaganyaan programme was proposed by the Prime Minister on August 15 and will attempt to send three astronauts to space by the end of 2022.
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The indigenous human spaceflight programme will carry a three-member crew to space for a minimum seven days. The Cabinet approved the Gaganyaan programme at a total cost of Rs 10,000 crore. ISRO has already confirmed that the first unmanned mission under Gaganyaan is expected by December 2020.
ISRO will launch its manned space mission in 2022, the crew model and space suits of which were displayed in September this year.
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The only Indian to have visited the outer space till date is Rakesh Sharma, who went on a spacecraft of the former Soviet Union in 1984.
ISRO’s chief K Sivan had revealed in November that the agency had set a target of achieving the country’s ambitious manned mission to space by 2021, with the first unmanned programme of ‘Gaganyaan’ planned for December 2020.