Article Posted on : - Aug 14, 2010

CHANDIGARH (PTI): The Indian Space Research Organization is planning to send astronauts to space before the year 2015-16, Deputy Project Director of ISRO's Chandrayaan Mission Jaswinder Singh Khoral has said.

Khoral was addressing the students at the Haryana Space Science Congress Programme at Faridabad Thursday which was organized by Space Applications Centre, Hisar on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Dr Vikaram Sarabhai, the father of Indian Space Programme.

About 800 students from 40 schools participated in the day-long programme aimed at sensitizing the students about developing a career in the field of science.

Khoral said ISRO was also working to send an unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-II in 2012-13, an official release quoting him said.

He said that India is in the select league of six nations which have sent their satellites to the moon.

He also informed the students about different details regarding the successful launch of Chandrayaan-I by ISRO.

Director, Haryana Science and Technology Department Sandeep Garg said the State Government has launched the Haryana Science Talent Hunt Scheme for students of class 9th to 12th to promote science among the students.

ISRO’s senior scientist Dr P K Champati Ray said that India is one of the leading countries in space technology in the world, having the capability of fabricating and launching its own satellites with indigenous launching vehicles.

He said India had successfully launched 17 remote sensing satellites and 24 geostationary satellites since 1975.

Elaborating on the strength of Indian Space Programme, he said the recently launched Cartosat-2b Remote Sensing Satellite has less than one metre resolution, which is capable of identifying the objects smaller than one metre and would be highly useful for urban and infrastructure planning.