History
The development of the Orbital Vehicle began in 2006. The plan was to design a simple vessel similar to the Mercury-class spacecraft with an endurance of about a week in space. It was designed to carry two astronauts and to land in water upon re-entry. The design was finalized by March 2008, and was submitted to the Government of India for funding. The funding for the Indian Human Spaceflight program was sanctioned in February 2009. Initially, the first unmanned flight of the Orbital Vehicle was expected to be in 2013.
ISRO based the Orbital Vehicle on the design of the SRE. ISRO had launched and recovered the 550-kg Space Recovery Capsule in January 2007. The full-scale manned OV spaceship was said to be derived from this, although ISRO's published concept showed a more elongated conical shape than the SRE.
Read more about this topic: ISRO Orbital Vehicle
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