India to have 1st human in space, deep sea by 2025, says Union Minister Jitendra Singh

Union Minister of State, Independent Charge for Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh, has said that it is most likely that India will have pioneer milestones in space and deep-sea explorations by 2025. Addressing an event in the national capital, Singh said, "Four astronauts-three Group Captains and one Wing Commander-have been selected for India's human space mission Gaganyaan."

It has been reported that the Indian Space Research Organisation's Gaganyaan mission is preparing to send a manned three-day mission into space which will orbit Earth from 400 km, and then will eventually come back. The mission dates back to 2025.

Speaking of the astronauts, Singh named the selected personnel: "Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan, and Angad Pratap along with Wing Commander Shubanshu Shukla from the Indian Air force."

Singh also shared plans on India's Deep-Sea mission: "India's Deep-Sea mission will send three Indians to the deep sea in 2025." Called 'Samudrayaan', the program, coordinated by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, aims to send a crewed mission into the depth of 6,000 m in the Central Indian Ocean on Board Matsya 6000—a totally indigenous developed manned submersible vehicle.

His reflections came after a speech by Singh, who underlined the transformative impact of India's achievements in space. "In fact, beyond launching rockets and satellites, the space sector will drive growth and have its positive rub-off on agriculture, infrastructure, communication, healthcare, etc."

"In 2022 we had just one space Startup and in 2024, after opening the space sector for private participation, we have nearly 200 startups," many among them have global capacity. He also underlined the flow of private sector investment into the sector, saying, "In just a few months, 1,000 crore of private sector investment has come into the space sector."