Article Posted on : - Dec 29, 2013

NEW DELHI (PTI): The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been tasked to recruit crew for ISRO's "ambitious" Man to Moon Mission, Air Marshal A K Behl, Director General, Medical Services (Air) has said.

MoD and ISRO have signed an MoU for the project.

"We have collaborated with ISRO a couple of years ago," he said on Friday.

The Director General for Armed Forces Services (DGAFS), who is looking after the project, is also supposed to assess whether the crew can maintain the spacecraft well and come back safely.

"Man to Moon is an ambitious project started by the ISRO.

"Since the Indian Air Force has domain expertise in aviation and other aspects related to space, we have collaborated with them. The Institute of Aviation Studies Bangalore is also involved in this project," Behl added.

Rakesh Sharma, a former Indian Air Force pilot who flew aboard the Soyuz T-11 as part of the Inter-cosmos programme by the USSR, was the first Indian to travel to space.