Bangalore: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has refuted the claim made by two senior Indian Air Force officials that India was planning to send a man to the Moon.
A press release issued by ISRO on Tuesday said the space agency "currently does not have any project on Man to Moon. "
The press release said: "Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM), Indian Air Force, Bangalore in March 2009 to carry out i) Basic research/studies on Human Physiological and Psychological requirements for Human Space Flight crew and ii) For augmenting/updating existing facilities at IAM to cater to ISRO's Human Space Flight Programme as a pre project Research & Development activity. "
Two top officials of IAF's Institute of Aerospace Medicine had announced on December 27 that India was planning a manned mission to the Moon.
The director general of IAF's medical services Air Marshal D P Joshi had said, the project was on the cards and the IAF will be selecting five Indians to undertake a mission to lnd on the Moon.
Air Marshal Joshi had even said, ISRO had tasked the IAF to prepare air staff requirements for manned lunar landing, adding that an unmanned mission to the Moon with a rover was between planned between 2015 and 2016.
Air Marshal A k Behl, DGMC (Air) had said, the effort and work relating to the manned lunar mission has started and we are obtaining information from countries such as Russia and the US.
China had successfully conducted its first landing of Chang'e 3 on the Moon on December 14, which has been described as a first step towards sending a Chinese man to the Moon.
ISRO officials point out that the government has not even cleared its human spaceflight programme to the low Earth orbit, and therefore there was no question of sending an Indian to the Moon right now.
