NEW DELHI, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- India's space agency says it needs $4.8 billion to put two astronauts in orbit for seven days in 2016.
The Indian Space Research Organization has asked the federal government to approve the project, which would involve no help from foreign countries, CNN reported Friday.
An astronaut training facility would be built in southern India in preparation for the flight.
India plans in 2012 to launch a second version of Chandrayaan, the moon probe launched in 2008 that completed 3,400 lunar orbits and accomplished most of its scientific goals before mysteriously vanishing last year, the space agency said.
Chandrayaan-1 carried payloads from Bulgaria, the United States and Europe in its search to identify chemical compositions of lunar rocks.
