Funding and Infrastructure
Development of a fully autonomous orbital vehicle to carry a two-member crew into a low Earth orbit has begun. ISRO sources said the flight is likely to be in 2016. The government has allocated 50 crore (US$10 million) for pre-project initiatives for 2007 through 2008. A manned mission into space would require about 12,400 crore (US$3 billion) and a period of seven years. The Planning Commission estimates that a budget of 5000 crore (US$1 billion) is required for initial work of the manned mission during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007–12). The project report prepared by ISRO has been cleared by the space commission. In February, 2009 the Government of India has given the green signal for the Manned Space flight Program due to launch in 2016.
MC Dathan, director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), stated that ISRO will set up a full-fledged training facility in Bangalore for training astronauts. ISRO is also planning to build a third launch pad at Sriharkota for manned missions with extra facilities like entry into the crew capsule and an escape chute.
In spring 2009 the full-scale mock-up of crew capsule of OV was built and delivered to Satish Dhawan Space Centre for training of astronauts.
Read more about this topic: ISRO Orbital Vehicle