DUBAI /UAE/, November 18. /TASS/. Indian astronauts will start their training sessions at Russia’s Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in 2020, Head of Glavkosmos (part of the Roscosmos space agency) Dmitry Loskutov told TASS at the Dubai Airshow 2019 on Monday.

"The education and training of gaganauts [one of the versions for the name of Indian astronauts] at the Cosmonaut Training Center are planned to start as soon as next year but this largely depends on the results of the selection by health parameters and the timeframe for the Indian side to decide whom they finally select and send to Russia for training," the Glavkosmos chief said.

India intends to develop its own manned program, he added. "In this regard, the flight by an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station is not planned so far," the chief executive stated.

On July 1, Roscosmos announced that Glavkosmos and the Human Space Flight Center of the Indian Space Research Organization had signed a contract on assistance in the medical check-up and training of Indian astronauts.

Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin announced on August 22 that Russian specialists from the Cosmonaut Training Center would select the first group of astronauts in India this autumn.