Glavkosmos had earlier said the four Indian astronauts were trained in abnormal descent module landing - in wooded and marshy areas in winter; on water surface, and in the steppe in summer.
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved participation of the private sector in the entire range of space activities, including planetary exploration missions.
According to ISRO Chairman K Sivan, ISRO's aim is to have the first unmanned flight by the end of next year. ‘Gaganyaan’ is India’s manned space mission which the ISRO aims to launch by December 2021. The project aims at sending the astronauts to a lower orbit of the earth and the spacecraft will have a capsule with adequate supply of oxygen and other essential material and facilities for the ‘Gagan Yatris’.
The Indian Air Force had earlier shortlisted 12 potential astronauts for the Gaganyaan project, out of which, seven pilots were sent to Russia for training.
Thoothukudi is about 600 km southeast of Chennai. The country's first spaceport is at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, about 90 km northeast of Chennai.
ISRO chief K Sivan said that the Government has approved Chandrayaan-3 and that work related to Chandrayaan-3 and 'Gaganyaan' was going on simultaneously.
On Tuesday, NASA confirmed that nearly three months ago Chandrayaan-2 mission made a hard landing near the uncharted lunar south pole in the wee hours of September 7.
The assertion came shortly after NASA said that its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Camera sighted the remains of Vikram lander on the moon's surface.
NASA in its statement said, 'Despite the loss, getting that close to the surface was an amazing achievement'.
According to ISRO, the Cartosat-3 is an advanced agile satellite to obtain panchromatic and multispectral imagery with an operational life of five years.
