Sriharikota: President A P J Abdul Kalam on October 10 expressed his desire that in the year 2021, when he will be 90 years old, he would like to board a space plane to reach another planet and return safely as one of the passengers.

'I foresee the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota growing into an international spaceport with a capability of enabling launches and landings of the reusable launch vehicles,' he said addressing the space scientists during his brief visit to SHAR (Sriharikota Range) Centre in Sriharikota.

Recalling the many successes and a few failures of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in its space programme, Kalam, himself a renowned missile scientist, said the ISRO was involved in huge missions like Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

"I am sure you will succeed with all your expertise and experience, in launching single stage rocket system with 100 times take off and 100 times landing capability after putting huge satellite systems and spacecraft in the required orbit."

'Time has come for the space programme to add to the economy of the nation', by producing commercially competitive spacecraft, commercially competitive space launch services with marketing ingenuity for which new stream of creative leaders had to be created, he said.

PTI