Indian Manned LEO Mission circa 2014

[kane007]

Yahoo News 2006/11/07<br /><br />The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced today they are a GO for a manned orbital mission on or after 2014.<br /><br />More details will surely follow in the next few hours.

 

[gunsandrockets]

What's interesting about Indian high technology projects is the seeming inability to make them work. The landscape is littered with aircraft, missile and tank programs that have spent years without producing results. Jump over to strategypage.com and have a peek for the sad history of Indian projects.<br /><br />Unless the Indians license-build the relevant equipment, I doubt the Indian government will launch an Indian astronaut into orbit by 2014. Add a decade to that number and even then it's kind of iffy.<br /><br />Don't get me wrong, I really hope the Indians jump into a space race. The more the merrier! But the problems of Indian society run deep and are too easily ignored by people who are on the look for the 'next rising world power'.

 

[josh_simonson]

Well, considering they've already got a couple launch vehicles, and a new, larger, one coming out soon, they've got the launch capability and that's 9/10 of the challenge.<br /><br />India buys most of it's engines from russia or france (except SRBs which are domestic), so they could probably throw together a decent booster with a bunch of RD-171s under it for a lunar program. <br /><br />The deserts of Nevada and New Mexico are littered with failed hardware projects too...

 

[subzero788]

I doubt that the Indians will make the 2014 date. Then again I also have doubts that the CEV/Orion will be flying by 2014. There is no reason they can't succeed sometime next decade. They have been making modifications to their GSLV for human missions since china sent a man into orbit in 2003. The Indian economy is booming and is expected to undergoe huge growth over the next decade to become the third biggest in the world. True, the ISRO will need a big increase over the $800 million they get annually at present . But they can spread the $3 billion required over a number of years.<br /><br />The "high technology" projects you describe are all of military nature. The ISRO is a civilian research organisation with a long history dating back to the 1960's. Sure they have experienced their fair share of launch failures but who hasn't? Look at the early US, russian, ESA, even today's Japanese program and you see a similar pattern. <br /><br />

 

[dreada5]

I hope the Indians proves us all wrong. As others have said, the more (heading Lunar), the merrier!

 

[kdavis007]

That is cool...

 

[kane007]

Finally some space centric sites starting to carry the story.<br /><br />Space.com<br />2006/11/10<br /><br />I thought there would never be any surporting statements.

 

[acid_frost]

I dont most very often but i had to on this thread. I hope India does well, i prefer to see them do well than China which steals at any cost technology and are more less more democratic over that of China. <br /><br />Acid

 

[elguapoguano]

Hats off to India for jumping into the manned space arena. 2014 sounds reasonable, they could pull it off. <br /><br />India is the worlds largest Democracy and have been building rockets for quite a while now. It will be interesting to see what they will build for the manned component. Soyuz style? Like the Chinese reverse engineered. Apollo type? Lifting body? It could be exciting, now where are the Japanese? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#ff0000"><u><em>Don't let your sig line incite a gay thread ;>)</em></u></font> </div>

 

[bpfeifer]

"Soyuz style? Like the Chinese reverse engineered."<br /><br />Just a minor correction... The Chinese designed their vehicle with a great deal of Russian assistance, it wasn't reverse engineered.<br /><br />Since India already buys Russian rocket engines, and has a history of purchasing Russian military hardware, it would not be surprising to see more Russian hardware or licensed designs in their manned spaceflight program. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Brian J. Pfeifer http://sabletower.wordpress.com<br /> The Dogsoldier Codex http://www.lulu.com/sabletower<br /> </div>

 

[elguapoguano]

"In the mid-1990s, China purchased a Soyuz descent module (reentry capsule) from RKK Energia, as well as obsolete rendezvous and docking hardware from one of RKK's Ukrainian sub-contractors, the official told space.com.<br /><br />At the time, however, there was no intergovernmental agreement on space exploration and the purchases were arranged as private deals. The descent module supplied to China contained the minimum of actual hardware, said the Russian official, who did not wish to be identified.<br /><br />Avionics and other crucial systems were just mock-ups. Nevertheless, the descent capsule obviously helped Chinese engineers to choose the configuration for their spacecraft, and to design a landing system."<br /><br /><br /><br />Kinda sounds like reverse engineering to me : />)<br /><br />http://www.space.com/news/china_russia_991122.html <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#ff0000"><u><em>Don't let your sig line incite a gay thread ;>)</em></u></font> </div>

 

[acid_frost]

"The Chinese designed their vehicle with a great deal of Russian assistance, it wasn't reverse engineered. "<br /><br />Iam surprised, they reverse engineer everything. As for India, good for them know i also want to see Japan jump into the mix that would be interesting.<br /><br />Cheers,<br /><br />Acid

 

[alokmohan]

Being Indian myself I congratulae all of you

 

[alokmohan]

Aggresive?What you mean?

 

[mrmorris]

<font color="yellow">"Aggresive?What you mean? "</font><br /><br />'Aggressive' in the sense it was used doesn't imply 'warlike'. In this sense, it would be more a synonym of 'intensive'. Essentially, the poster was hoping that India's manned spaceflight program would progress faster than Chinas.