HYDERABAD, SEPTEMBER 27: Almost a quarter of a century after it sent its first man into space, India is getting ready to put another person into a spacecraft—this time on its own.

The announcement by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) that it will soon approach the Government to get approval for a manned mission in the next 8-10 years is sure to excite millions of Indians who have, in the recent times, been forced to be content with rejoicing in the successes of Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.

Indeed many would have thought that with Rakesh Sharma’s space journey in 1984, aboard a Russian spacecraft, India had displayed its prowess in space technology and that it would be followed by many more such trips to the outer space. However, that was not the case. As ISRO scientists point out, India hardly had the technology to send a man into space in 1984. Rakesh Sharma’s journey had more to do with the Russian magnanimity than with India’s technological prowess.

“The Russians had offered to take an Indian on their spacecraft because of our close relations at that time. It was a free ride and we took that opportunity to gain some experience in flying in space,” said S Ramakrishnan, Associate Director (Projects) at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram. “We hardly had the kind of space capability that we now have. And we have had to work extremely hard to get here,” he said.

In the intervening two decades, India has developed into a major space power having launched a number of satellites and even getting into the business of carrying payloads of other countries on its launch vehicles. Now it is fully ready to put a human being into space.

“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.