“Over the years we have proven our capabilities in the field of space exploration. Sending a manned mission is just a logical extension of our programme so far,” said M Y S Prasad, Deputy Director at the Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad and one of the key organisers of the International Astronautical Congress here.

“The basic difference in launching a satellite and launching a man into space is that you have to safely bring the man back on earth. The safety precautions have to be extra secure and the margin of error has to be next to none. We are dealing with human lives here,” he said. India achieved a major milestone in this regard when it successfully conducted the Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1) earlier this year.