PM Modi: Gaganyaan to take Indian astronaut to space by 2022

An Indian astronaut, be it a man or a woman, will go on a space odyssey by 2022 on board ‘Gaganyaan’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his Independence Day address here.

ALSO READ | PM Modi announces Ayushmann Bharat health care scheme on September 25

He said when India celebrates 75^th year of Independence in 2022, “and if possible even before, an Indian son or daughter” will undertake a manned space mission on board ‘Gaganyaan’ “carrying the national flag”.

Chandrayaan-1 was India’s first lunar probe. It was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation in October 2008 and operated until August 2009.

Mangalyaan is another Indian space project.

ALSO READ | Independence day 2018: PM Modi speaks of India's rise under his government

The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan, is a space probe orbiting Mars since September 24, 2014.