For the longest time there were only two nations with their own access to space, the United States and Russia né Soviet Union. Then China managed the feat in 2003, and now they’re close to building their first multimodular space station.
With China building up their space infrastructure, India apparently felt under zugzwang. While they’d already sent an Indian to space in a Soyuz capsule in 1984, now they are pursuing their own program. Their space agency ISRO seems ready and eager, but there’s doubt about the timeline they proposed as being too optimistic.
The currently scheduled launch is in December 2021, but that may change, but the prime minister declared the goal to be ‘a son or a daughter of India will go to Space from Indian soil by an Indian vehicle by 2022 (75th year of Indian independence) or sooner’
When will an India send their first astronaut/gaganaut into space?
Will resolve positive to the respective launch time when at least one crew member of an Indian space craft/capsule launched with an Indian launch vehicle reaches orbit.