Russia reiterates committment to share expertise on India's space programme

Russia on December 27 reiterated its commitment to sharing expertise on training Indian astronauts for ISRO's maiden manned mission to the Moon.

"There is excellent cooperation between the Russian Space Corporation 'Roscosmos' and the Indian Space Research Organisation for the human space flight programme," Consulate General of Russian Federation, Consul-General, O Avdeev said.

Russia had offered its commitment to share its expertise in training future Indian astronauts for faster adaptation to overstress and weightlessness, which is a prerequisite, at the bilateral summit in September at Vladivostok between Russian President Vladmir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

ISRO has set a target to undertake the first unmanned programme under the Gaganyaan project by December 2022. Avdeev, in a press release, referred to the signing of an MoU at the meet to develop a maritime communication link between Vladivostok and Chennai, which would aid in Russian hydrocarbon exports to India.

He also referred to the Indo-Russian Joint Venture Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tirunelveli, about 600 km from here and said the first two units were already operational, while another two were 'under construction'.

Another two units would be set up under a long term target term target in the next 20 years, he said.