India's space agency approves manned space mission

India's state-run space agency approved its first indigenous manned mission into space on Tuesday, aiming to put an astronaut outside the earth's atmosphere by 2014.

The approval came after top Indian scientists met in the southern technology hub of Bangalore to discuss the viability of the mission."They were unanimous in suggesting that the time is appropriate for India to undertake a manned mission," a statement from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said.

In 1984, air force pilot Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian to go into space, riding in a then Soviet spacecraft.The new proposal for a manned mission will be put to the federal government for approval and funding. The mission is expected to cost $2.2 billion.

ISRO is already working on the launch of its first unmanned mission to orbit the moon in 2008, powered by an locally-built rocket.A senior ISRO official said scientists had also discussed a manned mission to the moon by 2020 as a "logical extension" of the Indian manned space mission.

In 2003, China, India's Asian rival, became the only the third nation -- after the United States and the then Soviet Union -- to launch a man into space aboard its own rocket. Beijing plans a space walk by 2008.

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