BENGALURU: While an Indian astronaut is being trained by the US to land on the Moon at the International Space Centre, the Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA), in collaboration with Blue Origin, has announced India as a partner nation in their human spaceflight programme for citizens from countries who have sent few or no astronauts to space.
An Indian citizen will get a seat among the six on a future mission of New Shepard, Blue Origin’s reusable suborbital rocket that will fly out of West Texas. Recently, Gopichand Thotakura made history as the second Indian to go to space.
New Shepard will fly the selected astronauts on an 11-minute journey past the Kármán line (100 km), the internationally recognized boundary of space. Astronauts will experience several minutes of weightlessness before making a controlled descent back to the landing pad.
“We’re excited to have India as part of our human spaceflight program. India has achieved remarkable milestones in its space journey in the past few years, including becoming the first country to reach the Moon’s southern pole. We want to make space accessible for everyone and are happy to offer this unique opportunity to an Indian citizen who wants to experience the wonders of space travel,” said Joshua Skurla, Co-Founder, SERA.
Any Indian citizen can register for the program by paying a fee of $2.50 to cover the costs of verification checks that ensure safe and fair voting. The final candidates will be voted by the public.
The potential astronauts will be required to meet Blue Origin’s physical requirements.
They can garner votes by telling their story to the public using their mission profile pages, social media and other resources. Voting will progress through candidate elimination across three phases.
The public will vote only for candidates from their nation or region, except for the sixth global seat, read a release by SERA.