The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has set up an internal review to decide in 2007 whether India will place a man in orbit by 2015. The expected means is India’s uprated Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III, expected to fly in 2008. As well as the internal review, other Indian research institutions and academic centres will contribute to the study, which will consider the cost of developing a manned spaceflight capability. ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair has also called for a national debate. “We have done the basic studies,” says B N Suresh, director of ISRO’s space vehicles...