India delays planned space station and moon base by 5 years • The Register

India’s space ministry has outlined plans to send the first astronaut into space next year, build a space station by 2035 and land an Indian on the moon by 2045.

Minister for Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh described the construction of the Bhartiya Antariksh Station – first publicly announced in 2019 – and the mission of the first Indian man to the moon as “cornerstone projects” of the national space programme.

The Bharatiya Antariksha Station is designed to accommodate astronauts for 15 to 20 days in an orbit about 400 km above the Earth and was originally scheduled to be completed by 2030.

The planned date for a manned moon landing has also been postponed from the previously targeted year of 2040.

Gaganyaan – India’s mission to send an astronaut into space in 2025 – was originally scheduled to take place by 2022. However, that date was repeatedly postponed – partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but also so that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) could focus on safety.

The Gaganyaan spacecraft is designed for a crew of three members and can orbit the Earth for up to seven days.

The mission schedule update came at an event ahead of India’s first National Space Day. The day falls on the first anniversary of India’s successful Chandrayaan-3 mission, which landed a spacecraft named Vikram on the lunar surface.

With Chandrayaan-3, India became the first nation to land in the south polar region of the Moon and the fourth country ever to land a rover on the Moon.

“Chandrayaan 3 was a milestone: Chandrayaan 4 and 5 will follow,” Singh explained.

ISRO Chairman S. Somanath announced earlier this week that the space agency had completed the designs for the two follow-on missions and was now seeking government approval.

Chandrayaan-4 is a planned lunar sample return mission that will also conduct a space tethering experiment in lunar orbit. The launch is currently scheduled for 2028.

Chandrayaan-5 is intended to test the possibility of a long-term presence on the natural satellite.

In a message on the occasion of National Space Day, Sing highlighted the growth of India’s space sector and referred to an impending “quantum leap” that will result in the space economy playing a very important role for India in the coming years.

The minister said investments of over Rs 1,000 crore ($120.5 million) in recent times have enabled a surge in the creation of space startups in India. According to Singh, there are around 300 such startups in India, many of them with global potential.

He also began praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for enabling a space economy in the country. Singh claimed that India has never lacked intelligence, talent or drive when it comes to developing a space industry, but that there is actually a huge brain drain of space professionals who do not have career opportunities at home.

“What was missing was the kind of supportive atmosphere – the kind of supportive environment, the kind of supportive ecosystem – that is provided by the political leadership of the country, that is provided by the policy makers of the country. And this lack was there even before Prime Minister Modi came to power,” Singh lamented.

At the event, Singh quoted a recent budget speech by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and predicted that the economy would grow fivefold in the next ten years.®