Director of Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) of ISRO Dr S.Unnikrishnan Nair with First Deputy Director General of Glavkosmos Natalia Lokteva

Russia will help India prepare astronauts for the first in the history of this country to fly into space astronauts on its own ship "Gaganyaan", which is scheduled for the end of 2021, the Glavkosmos company (Roscosmos Subsidiary) said on Monday.

For India, this will not be the first space flight, but the first on its own Spacecraft. The first Indian astronaut Rakesh Sharma flew into space in 1984 on the Soviet Soyuz T-11 spacecraft.

"Glavkosmos" and the Centre for Manned Space Flight of the Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO have signed an agreement to support the selection, medical examination and space training of Indian astronauts, "- said in a message on the Twitter account of the company.

Glavkosmos will advise on the selection of candidates for Indian astronauts, their medical examination and preparation for space flight. The work will be carried out with the support of the Cosmonaut Training Centre near Moscow and the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The agreement was signed on June 27th. First Deputy General Director of Glavkosmos Natalia Lokteva and the head of the ISRO Manned Space Flight Centre Dr. Unnikrishnan Nair signed the signatures under it.

In a speech on the occasion of Independence Day on August 15, 2018, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the country would independently send a national crew into orbit until 2022, when it marks the 75th anniversary of independence.

At the end of December, the Indian Cabinet approved a program worth 100 billion rupees (about 1.43 billion dollars) for the program, dubbed Gaganyann. The flight is scheduled for December 2021. Three people will go into space - two men and a woman. (Translated from the Russian)