The plan to put an Indian into space, on its own, for the first time by 2022 will create as many as 15,000 jobs, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Sivan has said. “We estimate that the human space mission will generate about 15,000 jobs over the next few years,” Mr Sivan told IANS.

The ISRO wants to take up the manned spaceflight in collaboration with multiple state-run scientific institutions, academia, industry and start-ups.

The space agency aims to take Indian astronauts into space to a height of 350-400 km above the earth and orbit around the planet for at least a week by 2022. The astronauts will also be conducting experiments in space, details of which are yet to be decided by ISRO. “The human spaceflight will be a national project and not just ISRO's, as we will be collaborating with several institutions, academia and the industry,” Mr Sivan told the media.

Mr Rakesh Sharma, a former Indian Air Force pilot, is the only Indian citizen to travel into space so far. He was part of the crew on Soyuz T-11 launched on April 2, 1984 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, a part of the then Soviet Union.

The ISRO will be working with the Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Bengaluru for training the crew and the Indian Air Force, which will select the crew, as well as with the private sector, which will be involved in research and development, Mr Sivan said.