India will send a man to space by Dec 2021: ISRO chief Sivan

Bhubaneswar: ISRO chairman K Sivan Saturday said the country is moving ahead to meet its target of sending man to space by December 2021.

He asserted that though ISRO's plan to soft-land Chandrayaan-2's 'Vikram' module on the lunar surface did not go as per the script, it will have no bearing with on the 'Gaganyaan' mission.

Stating Chandrayaan-2's orbiter will give data for seven and half years, he said all technologies of the moon mission have proved accurate except for the soft landing. "Is not it a success ?" he asked.

"By December 2020, we will have our first unmanned mission of human spaceplane. The second unmanned human space plane, we target for July 2021," Sivan said addressing the eighth convocation of IIT, Bhubaneswar.

"By December 2021, the first Indian will be carried by our rocket ... This is the target ISRO is working for," he said amidst loud clapping by the audience.

The Gaganyaan mission is vital for India as it will boost the science and technology capability of the country. "Therefore, we are working on a new target," he said.

Sivan asked students to take calculated risks and innovate. "If you are not taking a chance, there is no chance of achieving anything significant in life. Take calculated risks. When you take calculated risks, you save yourself from problematic areas".

Stressing on innovation, he said it comes from a high level of risk and failure. "I need not tell you how many times Edison failed in inventing the light bulb or how many times ISRO failed in the launch of our launch vehicles. But this failure did not become an obstacle. We (ISRO) use these failures as learning opportunities," the ISRO chief said.

Earlier, ISRO Chairman K Sivan said the Chandrayaan-2 mission had achieved 98 per cent of its objectives, even as scientists are working hard to establish contact with lander 'Vikram'.