India is following up its Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission with a billion dollar plan to put astronauts into orbit.

The Indian Planning Commission has reportedly signed off a $2.5 billion plan to follow an unmanned orbiter in 2013-2014 with a manned mission in 2014-2015. This is actually slightly less ambitious than some of the rumours that were circulating when Chandrayaan launched, which had India putting people on the Moon by 2015.

“We are planning to put persons in the vehicle and launch them into space for seven days in an orbit of 275 km,” says K Radhakrishnan, director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (various).

The London Times says that although the Indian Cabinet still has to sign off the plan this is a formality now the commission has approved it.

While the merits of manned space programmes can – and will – be debated till everyone is blue in the face, it’s nice to see some new players on the space scene. After all, there’s space for everyone up there (so long as you’re careful).

Image: launch of Chandrayaan-1 / ISRO via Wikipedia