India's Push Into Space

“We have decided that by 2022, when India completes 75 years of independence, or before that, a son or daughter of India will go to space with a tricolor (India's national flag) in their hands,” Modi said.

The mission was originally scheduled to take up to seven days and – before Modi's statement – carry up to three people on board. Such an expedition could help India join the group of three world superpowers – the U.S., Russia, and China – that have ventured into space with manned missions. The costs may go as high as $1.7 billion.

Yet as ambitious as India's plans may look, it would not be the first time the regional power has achieved a major space accomplishment. In September 2014, the low-cost Indian spacecraft Mangalyaan reached Mars and entered its orbit, marking the first time an Asian country reached the red planet. India also became the first country to complete the Mars trip on its first try. According to news agency Reuters, the cost of the mission was only $74 million, around 10 times less than what NASA, the U.S. space agency, spent to send its own spacecraft to Mars.

In the early 1960s, India was already launching its first rockets, and in 1975, the country launched its first satellite, Aryabhata. More than three decades and numerous tests and launches later, the Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO, succeeded at launching the country's first lunar probe, which functioned until August 2009 and made India the fourth nation to plant its flag on the moon – after the U.S., the former Soviet Union and Japan. India also has launched 237 satellites belonging to customers from 29 countries, and already reported one citizen in space in 1984, traveling aboard a Soviet mission.