India moving towards manned space flights

India sent an impressive probe to the moon last year. And putting people into orbit may be coming.

For some years, India has been talking about running its own manned space program. Now, with a big funding increase, they are looking increasingly serious about it. In fact, they hope to start manned space flight by 2015.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is building a training center for India’s astronauts (do they have them yet?) near Bangalore. Unlike China, who’s manned space program was built largely with the help of Russian space experts, India plans its program to be home grown.

This month, India revealed prelminary designs for its future crewed spacecraft. This should be interesting to watch.