First set of trials for Indian Space Station to begin next year: S Somanath

Faridabad: The first set of trials for the ambitious Indian Space Station will happen in 2025, Indian Space Research Organisation chairman S Somanath said here on Thursday, noting that the space agency was in talks with the industry for a 2028 launch of the first module of the station.

Asked when the trials for the space station will take place, Somanath said, “The initial tests will start from next year.”

“On Tuesday I had a review of the Bharatiya Antariksha Station architecture. Our people are working on so many options and presenting before us. We are talking to the industry to manufacture, test and launch the space station in 2028 using the current rockets. That’s our plan,” he said, while talking to journalists on the sidelines of the India International Science Festival.

Last October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi set ambitious goals for the ISRO, asking the space agency to establish a ‘Bharatiya Antariksha Station’ by 2035 and sending the first Indian to the Moon five years later.

The ISRO chairman said the first space station might be an unmanned one, but there could be a docking option to ferry human crew in future. “The person will come (to the station) whenever they are there. It will still work if there is nobody," he said.

Work has also started for developing a 10 tonne class rocket to ferry an Indian to the moon. “A rocket is to be developed when there is a long term utility. Now there is a need as we have to send humans to the moon and plan for our own space station. We need a bigger rocket,” he said.

Somanath said as a part of an Indo-US agreement, an Indian astronaut would travel to the International Space Station this year, but no decision has been taken on whether one of the four Indian Air Force pilots trained for the Gaganyaan mission would be selected.

The selected crew will have to undergo a separate training under the supervision of the USA’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a different rocket will be used for transportation to the International Space Station.

On the Venus mission, he said the plan was to launch the mission to Venus in 2028 and engineers were working towards it, but it would not be possible to give a timeline as the primary goal for ISRO was the tasks set by the Prime Minister.

"Venus mission has already been proposed. We are looking at how to bring down the costs as there are some high value items," he said, adding that work had started on the second Mars mission too.