India will send a manned flight into space by 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Wednesday.

 

印度总理纳伦德拉·莫迪周三宣布，2022年前将向太空发射载人飞船。

 

He said India will become the fourth country after Russia, the United States and China to achieve the feat¹ and its astronaut could be a man or a woman. The space capsule that will transport India's astronauts was tested a few days earlier.

 

Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian to travel in space, aboard a Soviet² rocket in 1984. As part of its own space program, active since the 1960s, India has launched scores of satellites for itself and other countries and successfully put one in orbit around Mars in 2014.

 

It hopes to showcase its technological³ ability to explore the solar system while also using research from space and elsewhere to solve problems at home. The $1 billion-a-year space program has already helped develop satellite, communication and remote-sensing technologies and has been used to gauge⁴ underground water levels and predict weather in the country prone⁵ to cycles of drought and flood.

 

Modi's 80-minute speech, broadcast live from the historic Red Fort in New Delhi, comes months before national elections.

 

Modi listed his government's achievements in the past four years in reforming the country's economy, reducing poverty and corruption⁶. He announced a health insurance scheme for 500 million poor people providing a cover of 500,000 rupees ($7,150) per family a year.

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