fazTimes media: India's space people said on Tuesday that they're planning to send a test spacecraft without any people in it later this year. After that, they're aiming to send their first humans into space in early 2027.

India's science and technology minister, Jitendra Singh, said in a statement, "This shows that India is becoming a big player in space around the world."

Our country, which has the most people in the world, has been showing off its space plans in the last ten years. India's space program is getting much bigger and moving forward quickly.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has even said that India plans to send a person to the Moon by 2040! 🌕

The Department of Space said in a statement, "The test mission without people, called Gaganyaan ('space craft'), is on track to launch later this year. We've already done some practice with the Indian Navy on how to get the spacecraft back from the sea, and we're planning more of these tests."

Along with other tests, this will lead to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sending astronauts into space.

"These big steps will lead to India's first human spaceflight in 2027, launching Indian astronauts into orbit on an Indian rocket from Indian soil," they added.

ISRO said that the human spaceflight is planned for "the first three months" of 2027. "The training of the astronauts is also going well," the statement said.

"Four pilots from the Indian Air Force, who have been chosen to be astronauts, have finished their training in Russia and are now getting more specific training for their mission in India."

India has been able to do what bigger space countries have done, but for much less money. 💰

In August 2023, India became only the fourth country to land a robot spacecraft on the Moon, after Russia, the United States, and China. 🇮🇳➡️🌕

This month, an Indian astronaut named Shubhanshu Shukla, who is 39 years old, is expected to fly to the International Space Station. He will be the first Indian astronaut to do this and only the second Indian ever to go into orbit. 🧑‍🚀🇮🇳➡️🛰️

This mission is a team effort by NASA (from the U.S.) and ISRO, and it will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Shukla, who is set to fly the Axiom Mission 4, is likely one of the top people being considered for ISRO's human spaceflight program.

Shukla's trip to space will happen forty years after India's Rakesh Sharma's famous spaceflight on a Russian spacecraft back in 1984. 🇮🇳🤝🇷🇺

Reported by FazTimes Media.

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