BENGALURU: The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) said on Wednesday that they’ve signed an MoU for astronaut selection and training for the ambitious Gaganyaan mission, scheduled for 2022.

“IAF signed MoU with ISRO for crew selection & training for the prestigious Gaganyaan programme. Air vice marshal RGK Kapoor, Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (ACAS) Operations (Space), handed over the MoU to R Hutton, project director, Gaganyaan,” the IAF said.

This will kick-start the process of selection, which will take 12-14 months, following which the training will begin. While most of the basic training will happen in India, Isro is looking for foreign help for advanced training, its chairman Sivan K has said.

From the IAF’s side, the Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) will lead the selection and training of astronauts. IAM Commandant Air Commodore Anupam Agarwal told TOI: “...We’ll need a pool of 30 aspirants, of whom, 15 will be picked and given basic training. If the plan is to send three, we’ll shortlist three sets of three (nine) and let one set go about three months before the launch with the others remaining in the programme till launch date. This is my assessment.”

Agarwal said that the first set of evaluations will take about three months as IAM will have to ensure it picks the best, whose physical condition is among the best in India and they also have the right mental make up.

Isro had, in February submitted all relevant documents to the IAF. “While that has been done, we were waiting for the official MoU before moving ahead,” a source in IAM said, while Sivan told TOI: “They could have gone ahead without the MoU as we had submitted all the documents. The MoU was only a formality.”

While the Gaganyaan mission was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15 last year, the Centre officially sanctioned Rs 10,000 crore in December, and Isro set up the Human Spaceflight Centre at its headquarters in Bengaluru on January 30.

Isro has already received a host of experiments’ proposals from institutions across India, of which a few will be selected to be tried out during the mission. As TOI first reported, Isor plans to send humanoids before sending humans to space. This year will also see a host of developments relating to the project.

