India’s First Human Space Flight Project Gets A French Connection: ISRO Experts To Train In France For’ Gaganyaan’

Toulouse Space Centre in France will provide the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) experts training for the Gaganyaan project starting this month, reports Financial Express.

The French space agency, CNES informed that the experts will also be trained at CADMOS, the centre for development of microgravity applications and space operations, and the MEDES Space Clinic in France.

India and France had earlier formed a working group to cooperate on the Gaganyaan project. The ambit of the cooperation includes the field of space medicine, astronaut health monitoring, life support radiation protection and space debris. France will also be giving ISRO the access to space hospital facilities.

The development comes a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron launched ‘Joint Vision for Space Cooperation’. India has also signed an agreement with Russia for the India’s first human spaceflight programme - Gaganyaan under which three Indians will travel to space by 2022.

Last month, Indian Air Force was assigned the task of selecting and training the crew members by ISRO. “The first two levels of training of the crew will happen at the IAF’s Institute of Aerospace Medicine (Bengaluru) and the final phase of training will be abroad,” said ISRO chairman K Sivan.