Four Indian cosmonauts resume training in Russia for Gaganyaan mission

Bengaluru, May 23 (PTI) The four cosmonauts shortlisted
for Gaganyaan, India's first manned space mission, have
resumed their training in Russia, after it was put on hold due
to COVID-19 scare.
Russian space corporation, Roscosmos in a statement said,
"Gagarin Research & Test Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) on
May 12 resumed training of the Indian cosmonauts under the
contract between Glavkosmos, JSC (part of the State Space
Corporation Roscosmos) and the Human Spaceflight Center of the
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)."
All four Indian cosmonauts were in good health.
"GCTC continues to observe anti-epidemic regulations
according to which sanitary and hygienic measures are carried
out at all the GCTC facilities, social distancing measures are
applied and the presence of unauthorized persons is
restricted; all employees and cosmonauts must wear medical
masks and gloves," it added.
Roscosmos also tweeted a picture of the cosmonauts
wearing space suit bearing Indian flag.
Four Indian Air Force fighter pilots are currently under
training in Moscow, and are likely to be potential candidates
for the Gaganyaan project.
The Rs 10,000-crore ambitious project is expected to be
launched in 2022, the year of the 75th anniversary of India's
Independence
Roscosmos further said, this week, the GCTC specialists
are providing theoretical classes on the basics of
astrogation, the basics of manned spacecraft control and the
Russian language to the Indian cosmonauts.
The contract for the training of Indian cosmonauts
between Glavkosmos and the Human Spaceflight Center of ISRO
was signed on June 27, 2019, and their training in Russia
started on February 10, 2020.
Since the end of March, due to the outbreak of COVID-19
infection, a lockdown was recommended for the Indian
cosmonauts which they carefully observed, it said.
Earlier, officials had said that after the training in
Russia, the cosmonauts will receive module-specific training
in India, where they would be trained in crew and service
module designed by ISRO, learn to operate it, work around it
and do simulations. PTI KSU
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)