India will launch its first manned space and deep ocean missions in 2025, Union minister Jitendra Singh said on Sunday.
"The final launch (of Gaganyaan) will happen in 2025. This year is going to be very important because the test flights will be completed. It is very significant and exciting to send a human being into space but it is equally important to get the human being back safe and sound," the minister of state in the prime minister's office said.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a BJP meeting here, he said there is a crew module and an operational module, and the test flights will ensure that all these function as planned.
And then the last flight before the actual flight would be carrying a female robot, named "Vyommitra", and she would perform all the activities which finally the human astronaut would perform, the minister said.
"...when we have an Indian going into space, we will also have an Indian going to the seabed," he said, referring to the deep ocean mission.
In 2025, he said, an Indian diver will go to the lowest depth of the sea and the exploration will open up a blue economy based on minerals, metals, the biodiversity and the entire wealth which lies there.
"We have a 7,500-km-long coast, which is longer than any other country and the blue economy is going to further boost the country's overall economy in 2025," he said.
He also hailed the success of India's first solar mission Aditya L1.
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