The Indian human spaceflight programme:

♤ The Indian human spaceflight programme is a proposal by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to develop and launch the ISRO Orbital Vehicle, which is to carry a two-member crew to Low Earth Orbit. Recent reports indicate that human spaceflight will occur after 2017 as the mission is not included in the government's 12th five-year plan (2012–2017).

♤ The ISRO does not have a human-rated launch vehicle yet. A full-scale, unmanned crew module is getting ready to be flown onboard the experimental flight of GSLV Mk-III, to understand its ballistic re- entry characteristics.

♤ Under the MoU ISRO and Russian space agency Roskosmos have revealed that they will jointly build the spacecraft for the Indian manned mission.

♤ Having considered several terms for Indian astronauts, Vyomanaut has been finalised by ISRO. The term Vyomanaut stands for Vyoma which means space or sky in Sanskrit.

♤ In 1984, Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian citizen to go into space, flying aboard a Soviet mission.