Four Indians will be trained at Russia’s Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Centre; French space agency CNES would train Indian space medicine personnel for Gaganyaan

India and Russia are negotiating the supply of space suits, crew seats and windows for astronauts who will be part of Gaganyaan, India’s first human space mission set for 2022, according to a release issued by Russia’s state-owned Roscosmos.

Four Indians will be trained at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Centre as per a contract signed on June 27 between Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Russian space agency Glavkosmos, part of Roscosmos.

The two sides also discussed crew rescue system, aerodynamic tests of the GSLV MK-III rocket that will carry the astronauts, some of which may be signed by the end of August, the release dated August 21 said. Satellite navigation and engine technology were also discussed.

The announcement was made in connection with the meeting of National Security Adviser Ajit Doval with Roscosmos’s Director General Dmitry Rogozin in Moscow on August 21.

Glavkosmos will help ISRO to select, test, train and qualify Indian astronauts and involve the Yuri Gagarin centre and the state-run Institute of Medical and Biological Problems.

Space Doctors

In a separate development during the Prime Minister’s current visit to France, French space agency CNES said on August 23 that its agencies would train Indian space medicine personnel for Gaganyaan.

France has offered exchanges and training at its MEDES space clinic and CADMOS (Centre for the Development of Micro-Gravity Applications and Space operation.)

The training will cover astronauts’ life support systems, health monitoring, medicine, radiation protection, protection from space debris and personal hygiene systems, CNES president Jean-Yves Le Gall had said here last September.