When will India build own space station? ISRO chief S Somanath responds

India is planning to build its own space station in the next 20 to 25 years, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief S Somanath said on Friday.

“Our Gaganyaan programme is towards a human space flight capability to space and once that happens, we will be able to look at space station building in subsequent modules,” the ISRO chief said during an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN).

The timeline for this space station project spans the next 20 to 25 years, he said. “We will be definitely looking at manned exploration, a human spaceflight for a longer duration, space exercise there in our agenda,” Somanath replied when asked about India’s plans for a space station.

The initial plan for this project was set in motion in 2019, when the ISRO announced it would set up its own space agency within the next 10 years, following the launch of India’s first manned mission Gaganyaan by 2021. However, the project got delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, pushing the project deadlines further.

‘Smaller than ISS’

After Gaganyaan, the next “logical step is setting up a space station and then sending a manned mission to the Moon. We have a very clear plan”, said the then ISRO chief K Sivan had said. He also said the Indian space station, when built, would operate independently from the International Space Station (ISS) and would be smaller in size.

“We will be launching a small module, and that will be used for carrying out microgravity experiments,” Sivan had said. “We are not having a big plan of sending humans on tourism and other things,” he added.

Currently, the ISS is the only such facility in this field. The ISS functions in the Earth’s low orbit, flying 400 km above the surface to make a complete circuit of our planet in 90 minutes.

The space station was launched in 1998 in partnership with the US, Russia, Japan, Canada and European countries.