NEW DELHI - Indian researchers have announced plans to send their astronauts to space in 2016.

The cost of the proposed mission is estimated at $4.8 billion.

A training facility for astronauts will also be built in southern India as part of the program.

In 1984, Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to explore space in what was a joint mission with the then Soviet Union.

In 2008, India launched its first unmanned mission—Chandrayaan-1 — to the moon that dropped a probe onto the lunar surface.

In 312 days, Chandrayaan-1, meaning moon craft, completed more than 3,400 orbits and met most of its scientific objectives before vanishing off the radars abruptly last year.

The Chandrayaan-1 mission came to be seen as the 21st century, Asian version of the space race between the United States and the USSR—but this time involving India and China.

The agency was also planning to send a second version of Chandrayaan in 2012.

India held its first rocket launch from a fishing village in southern India in 1963.

Now, India lists more than 60 events as “milestones” in its space program.