As India celebrates 75 years of Independence, Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti sent a video message from space wishing success to the country's space agency, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on "Gaganyaan" programme - India's maiden human space mission which is scheduled to take place in 2023.
"On behalf of ISA, NASA and all international partners, I would like to wish best of luck to ISRO as it works on getgonian programme and gets ready to sent humans into space. Expanding our partnership with ISRO and exploring the universe together is a goal for all of us for future space explorations," says Ms Cristoforetti in a video shared by Indian Ambassador to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu.
Mr Sandhu shared the message on the birth anniversary of Vikram Sarabhai, the father of Indian space programme.
In the 1-minute 13 seconds long video, Ms Cristoforetti also spoke about the joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and the ISRO, and said that the International space agency is expanding its partnership with ISRO for future space explorations.
"Expanding our partnership with ISRO and exploring the universe together is a goal for all of us for future space explorations," she said.
Preparations for 'Gaganyaan' are complete and humans of Indian origin will go to space next year, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said last month.
The minister also announced that the trials of the mission scheduled to take place in 2023 will be conducted by the end of this year.
"Next year one or two human beings of Indian origin will go to space. The preparations for our 'Gaganyaan' have been done. Before that, two trials will be conducted by the end of this year. The first trial will be empty and in the second a female robot (astronaut) will be sent whose name is Vyommitra," Mr Singh said during a press conference.
"On the basis of these two missions, our astronauts will go in the third mission," he added.
With the 'Gaganyaan' mission, India aims to become the fourth nation in the world to launch a Human Spaceflight Mission after USA, Russia and China.
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