India postpones launch of space station and construction of lunar base by 5 years

The head of the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh, said that the country will send its first astronaut into orbit next year, plans to build a national space station by 2035, and the first Indian will set foot on the Moon by 2045.

Image source: isro.gov.in

Mr. Singh called the Bharatiya Antariksha station, which was first publicly announced in 2019, and sending an Indian citizen to the moon “cornerstone projects” of the national space program. The station is designed to house astronauts for 15–20 days in orbit about 400 km above the Earth. Initially, the project was intended to be completed by 2030.

The Moon landing was previously planned for 2040. The first manned space flight on the Indian spacecraft Gaganyaan was originally planned for 2022, but this date has been pushed back several times, including due to the pandemic and also due to the fact that the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) We decided to work on some security issues. The ship is designed to carry a crew of up to three people, and it can stay in orbit for up to seven days.

Indian authorities announced plans at an event on the eve of the first National Space Day – exactly a year ago, as part of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, the Vikram module landed on the Moon. As a result, India became the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the Moon. As part of the follow-up Chandrayaan-4 mission, a docking experiment in lunar orbit and the return of a soil sample are planned – it is scheduled for 2028. The Chandrayaan-5 mission will explore the possibility of a long-term presence on the Moon.

There are more than a hundred space-related startups operating in India, and many of them have global potential – to date they have managed to raise more than 1,000 crores (10 billion rupees or $120.5 million), Mr. Singh noted.