Updated on Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 17:55 IST

Moscow, June 30: India is keen to expand its ongoing space cooperation with Russia to joint development of a "cheaper" reusable spacecraft, ISRO Chairman Madhavan Nair has said.

"India would like to continue strengthening space cooperation (with Russia) and also to expand it by means of development of cheap reusable spacecraft," he said in an interview to the government-run RIA Novosti.

ISRO and Russia's federal space agency Roskosmos are currently working on the joint Chandrayan-2 project for which the Russian side would provide a lunar landing craft to put a Moon-rover for the lunar research.

Under the agreement signed in 2007, the Chandrayan-2 lunar mission is planned in 2011-2012 for which ISRO is developing new powerful GSLV-Mark-III space launch vehicle, Nair said.

Russia is also helping India in its first manned space flight due in 2015.

"In December 2008 India and Russia signed an agreement on cooperation in manned space flights. Under this agreement Roskosmos is helping ISRO in preparing for the manned mission," Nair said.

According to the ISRO chief, a space capsule with two astronauts would be launched at low earth orbit of 275 kilometres on about a weeklong orbital flight.

Recalling the history of space cooperation with Moscow, Nair said it began in 1962 with the launching of Soviet meteorological rockets from Thumba rocket range in Kerala and orbiting of first Indian satellites Aryabhatta, Bhaskara-1 and Bhaskara-2 and three IRS series remote-sensing satellites aboard Russian launch vehicles.

Bureau Report