Top space scientists expressed their reservations and apprehensions about the Gaganyaan, the Rs 10,000 crore manned space mission announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day and which was reiterated n Tuesday by the Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman K Sivan.
“It seems the Prime Minister has bitten more than what he could chew. I am not blaming the Prime Minister because he could have been made to believe about the feasibility of such a mission by the ISRO scientists,” said a former top ISRO scientist who did not want his name to be quoted.
He said India has to go “miles and miles” before thinking about a manned flight to space. Only three nations, USA, Russia and China, have achieved the feat of sending manned mission to outer space.
But G Madhavan Nair, former chairman, ISRO, said he was optimistic about the manned mission. “We had been working on it since 2004 and had developed many technologies and know-how for the mission. But the UPA-2 Government put the entire work on cold storage since 2009. This was revived only after the present Government assumed office in 2014,” said Nair.