Indian astronaut on moon by 2040: PM Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday set ambitious goals for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), asking the space agency to establish a ‘Bharatiya Antariksha Station’ (Indian Space Station) by 2035 and sending the first Indian to the Moon five years later. Such sky-high targets came at a high-level review meeting in which ISRO chairman S Somanath briefed the Prime Minister on preparations for the human space flight programme (Gaganyaan mission), whose launch date has now been pushed to 2025.

Buoyed by the success of the Chandrayan-3 and Aditya L1 mission that is scheduled to reach its destination by November end, Modi directed ISRO officials to aim for new and ambitious goals including setting up of ‘Bharatiya Antariksha Station’ by 2035 and sending the first Indian to the Moon by 2040, the Union government said in a statement.

The big announcement comes four months after India and the US had agreed to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station in 2024 on board a US spacecraft. This was announced during the Prime Minister’s visit to the USA in June.

The ISS has been in existence for almost 23 years, carrying out scientific experiments in a microgravity environment. The low earth orbit space station has seen the longest continuous human presence in space, surpassing the record of Russian station Mir that was in space for close to ten years.

“To realise the Prime Minister’s vision, the Department of Space will develop a roadmap for moon exploration. This will encompass a series of Chandrayaan missions, the development of a Next Generation Launch Vehicle, construction of a new launch pad, setting up human-centric Laboratories and associated technologies,” the government said.

India and Japan are in talks for the next Chandrayaan mission around 2026, in which Japan is to provide the launch vehicle and rover whereas the lander will come from the ISRO. A new launch pad is also under consideration in Tamil Nadu.

The Prime Minister also asked the space scientists to work towards interplanetary missions that would include a Venus Orbiter Mission and a Mars Lander.