As per Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Sivan, the plan to put an Indian into space, on its own, for the first time by 2022 will create as many as 15,000 jobs.

Sivan told IANS, “We estimate that the human space mission will generate about 15,000 jobs over the next few years.”

ISRO wants to take up the manned spaceflight in collaboration with multiple state-run scientific institutions, academia, industry, and startups. It aims to take Indian astronauts into space to a height of 350-400 km above the earth and orbit around the planet for at least a week by 2022. The astronauts will also be conducting experiments in space, details of which are yet to be decided by the agency.

Sivan added that the human spaceflight will be a national project and not just ISRO’s, as the agency will be collaborating with several institutions, academia, and the industry.

The ISRO will be working with the Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Bengaluru for training the crew and the Indian Air Force, which will select the crew, as well as with the private sector, which will be involved in research and development, as per the ISRO chief.

India’s attempt to reach space by 2022 comes almost six decades after Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to journey into outer space and orbit the earth in 1961. The US, Russia, and China are the only three countries to have launched manned space flights.

The ambitious human space mission is expected to cost about Rs 10,000 Cr, in addition to the already spent Rs 300-Cr in developing the technologies for the mission.

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