India will send an astronaut into space on one of its own rockets by 2015 and embark on a manned mission to the moon by 2020, the country's space agency chief said Friday. Before sending an astronaut to the moon, the country will send the Chandrayaan-I satellite to the moon next year, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman Madhavan Nair told reporters here. "India will be launching Chandrayaan-I by mid-next year for carrying out scientific experiments on the moon," he said after inaugurating an information and communication technology gallery at the Raman Science centre. The satellite with a payload of 560 kgs will carry instruments to study the moon's surface. It will be launched on the PSLV rocket around August next year, Nair was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India.
