India's Space Program: Upcoming Missions and Developments

The Gaganyaan program, India's first human spaceflight initiative, is a central focus. The aim is to send a crew of three members into a 400-km orbit for a three-day mission. Prior to this crewed flight, ISRO has planned a series of uncrewed test flights. The first of these, G1, is scheduled for launch sometime after March 2025, using the Human-rated LVM3 rocket. This mission will feature a humanoid robot named Vyomitra inside a depressurized crew chamber. Following G1, additional uncrewed flights, G2 and G3, are planned before the final crewed mission, H1. Beyond these initial missions, the Gaganyaan program also has its schedule set on future missions to the International Space Station (ISS) and the planned Bharatiya Antariksha Station (BAS1).

ISRO is also planning lunar and planetary missions to expand its horizons. The Chandrayaan-4 is a a lunar sample-return expedition, planned for the year 2027-28. This mission will be limited to gathering lunar soil samples and returning them to Earth for analysis. The Venus Orbiter Mission, also known as Shukrayaan, is another prospect, designed to study the atmosphere of Venus, one of earth's neighbors. The launch is scheduled for March 2028.

In addition to these goals, ISRO has a number of satellite launches in the pipeline. This includes the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, a collaborative project with NASA to develop and launch a dual-frequency synthetic aperture radar satellite for remote sensing.

India plans to launch its own space station, the Bharatiya Antariksha Station , by the next decade. The station is expected to weigh around 20 tonnes and orbit approximately 400 kilometers above the Earth's surface. It will be capable of hosting astronauts for missions than span till 15 to 20 days. That is not all. India also plans to take up a crewed mission to the Moon by 2040, further anchoring its role in global space exploration.

By: Akshaj Medicharla