TNI Bureau: Wing Commander Nikhil Rath of Bolangir district in Odisha has brought laurel for the State as the first Odia who has been shortlisted for ISRO’s next project Mission Gaganyaan.
The Indian Air Force (AIF) has completed the first level of selecting astronauts for the ambitious Gaganyaan mission from its pool of test pilots at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Bangalore.
All 25 shortlisted test pilots will undergo training in Russia for one year.
The first Gaganyaan flight by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scheduled for 2022 will carry three astronauts, who will be picked from among the test pilots in the armed forces. A three-member Indian crew will be sent to space for a period of seven days. The spacecraft will circle the earth at a distance of 300-400 km.
The Gaganyaan project is worth Rs 10,000 crore.