India Plans Manned Space Flight in 2022

[Mr. B1ack]

India Plans Manned Space Flight in 2022 :

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45243908

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that India
will carry out a manned space flight by 2022. Science
writer Pallava Bagla asks whether the country's space
agency can pick up the gauntlet.

Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation
(Isro) reckon they will need $1.28bn (£1.01bn) to fulfil
Mr Modi's challenge - and they think they can launch
the flight within 40 months.

There are many reasons why they believe it can be done.

They hope to use the country's heaviest rocket - the
Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III or
GSLV Mk-III - for the space flight.

This 640-tonne, 43-metre tall rocket was launched
successfully in 2017. The coverage of the launch was
euphoric, and often colourful, with websites comparing
the rocket to the weight of 200 elephants or five jumbo jets.

This rocket can launch 10 tonnes of payload into low-Earth
orbit- an altitude of 2,000km (1,200 miles) or less above
the planet - which is more than enough to send a crew into
space, say scientists.

With some modifications, the launch pad from a site off
the Bay of Bengal can easily be used to launch astronauts,
they say.

. . . . . .

I have no doubts they CAN do it.

India remains a rather odd nation though - the very
highest levels of education and technology living
alongside some of the most desperate poverty
and desolation on the planet. Remnants of the
caste/class system seem to prevent much
vertical monetary or social mobility ... ie little
"trickle-down" or "moving up".