First Manned Mission to Space by 2022: The Prime Minister in his Independence speech has envisioned sending first manned space mission from India by the year 2022. The manned space mission will be onboard ‘Gaganyaan’. If India will be successful it will be fourth nation after US, Russia and China to put a man in space. Former Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot Rakesh Sharma was first Indian to travel to space. He was part of the Soviet Union’s Soyuz T-11 expedition, launched on April 2, 1984, as part of the Intercosmos programme.