Four astronauts have been identified for India's upcoming Gaganyaan mission, India's space agency Isro said today.

The training of astronauts will begin in the third week of January in Russia, Isro chief K Sivan told reporters in Bengaluru.

Gaganyaan is a crewed orbital spacecraft intended to send astronauts to space for a minimum of seven days by 2022, as part of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme. Last year, Isro had said it wanted woman astronauts to be part of the mission.

K Sivan said today that many of Gaganyaan's systems needed to be tested, and that crew training would be a major activity this year.

CHANDRAYAAN-3

K Sivan also said India's next moon mission, Chandrayaan-3, had been approved. He said the launch may shift to next year. (Union Minister Jitendra Singh said yesterday India would launch Chandrayaan-3 in 2020.)

The ongoing moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, has been largely successful -- but the Vikram lander failed to soft-land on the Moon in September. Nasa recently published images of debris at the crash site, with help from a Chennai techie.

K Sivan congratulated the young man, Shanmuga Subramaniam, and said it was Isro's policy not to release the picture of the crashed module.

"We know where it crashed and where it is located," he said.

Sivan also pointed out that the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter was still functioning, and said it would continue to provide data for seven years.

Like the Chandrayaan-2 mission, Chandrayaan-3 will have a lander, a rover and a propulsion module, he said.

The cost of the project would be Rs 250 crore, K Sivan said.

The Isro chief also announced that land acquisition for a second spaceport in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu -- measuring 2,300 acres -- had been initiated.