Russia to build new spaceship for Indian manned space program.

KOROLYOV (Moscow region), March 18 (Itar-Tass) - A new spaceship that will be lighter than the Russian Soyuz will be built for the Indian manned space program, Chief of the manned flight department of the Federal Space Agency Alexei Krasnov told Itar-Tass after successful landing of the ISS 21/22 space crew on Thursday.

Commenting on the recent talks with the Indian colleagues on
developing their national space program, Krasnov said that they were
through "a first stage in which the feasibility of the Indian space
program was appraised." The Indian interests in avionics were discussed,
he said.
A second problem discussed with the Indian side was a possibility of
a space flight planned by Indian cosmonauts on the so- called Gagarin
trajectory without docking with the ISS in the end of 2011 or beginning of
2012, Krasnov said. At present, India is in a stage of comprehending its
space program. They would like to build their own spaceship carried by an
Indian-made carrier rocket. Our spaceship "Soyuz" cannot be carried by an
Indian carrier rocket because the Russian Soyuz has a bigger weight,
Krasnov said.
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