With the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the southern part of the Moon, India is now looking forward to developing an orbital space station. According to India Today website on Oct. 5, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman S. Somanath disclosed in an interview with China’s CGTN that they are exploring various possibilities for future missions, including building a space station and engaging in long-duration manned spaceflight: “We are looking at what kind of science you can do. We are looking at how to make the space station beneficial to India’s space economy.”
ISRO plans to develop manned space capabilities through India’s first manned space mission, Gaganyaan. The project aims to send three astronauts into a 400-km orbit for a three-day mission and return them safely, taking an important step towards the construction of the space station. “We have a plan that in the near future we have to start building a space station and start operating it with robots,” Somanath explained. “We still don’t have manned flight capability and we are working on it. The Gaganyaan program aims to improve manned spaceflight capabilities, and once this is achieved, we will be able to see subsequent module construction of the space station in the next 20-25 years.”
