India likely to ink pact with Russia for Gaganyaan

New Delhi: After an agreement with France, India could ink a pact with Russia for sharing of expertise on ISRO's ambitious human space mission project 'Gaganyaan' during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to New Delhi next month, official sources said.

Besides 'Gaganyaan', the two sides are currently engaged in talks to establish ground stations for Glonass, the global positioning system of Russia, and NaVIC, India's home-grown GPS in the other country, the sources added.

The subject to share expertise on 'Gaganyaan' came up during External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's visit to Moscow this month, a source said.

Significantly, India and France signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this month to share French expertise on the human mission project announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address this year.

The human mission project envisages sending three Indians to space by 2022.

India's first and - so far - the only astronaut Rakesh Sharma visited the outer space in 1984 on a spacecraft of the erstwhile Soviet Union.