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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says the country will send a manned flight into space by 2022.
The announcement came amid celebrations Wednesday of India's independence from British colonialists in 1947.
Modi's speech was broadcast live to the nation from the historic Red Fort in New Delhi. He said the country will become the fourth country after Russia, the United States and China to achieve the feat.
The Indian astronaut could be a man or a woman, reports AP.
India a few days earlier had tested the space capsule that will transport the astronauts.
In 1984, Rakesh Sharma was the first India to travel in space aboard a Soviet rocket.
In 2014, India successfully put a satellite into orbit around Mars.