Bharatiya Antariksh Station: First module of India's space station approved

India's own space station: The union cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the building of first unit of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS-1)

The government of India has approved the building of the first module of the country’s space station, to be called Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS-1), by extending the scope of its Gaganyaan mission. 

The development marks an important milestone towards the operationalisation of India’s own space station by 2035 and paves the way for a crewed moon mission by 2040.

The cabinet meeting, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the building of the first unit of the country’s first space station. “Approval by the cabinet is given for development of the first module of Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS-1) and undertake missions to demonstrate and validate various technologies for building and operating BAS,” said a statement released after the meeting. 

India’s space ambitions include the development of a space station (Bharatiya Antariksh Station) by 2035 and Indian Landing on the Moon by 2040. The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) plans to launch a series of Gaganyaan and Chandrayaan follow-on missions, including the development of associated space transportation and infrastructure capabilities, to achieve the target. 

Buoyed by the successful demonstration of the soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 Lander on the Moon’s surface, Isro is gearing up to test its human space flight capabilities with its Gaganyaan mission.

The revised Gaganyaan programme includes “the scope of development and precursor missions for BAS, and factoring one additional uncrewed mission and additional hardware requirement for the developments of ongoing Gaganyaan Programme.” 

Being developed in collaboration with industry, academia and other national agencies as stakeholders, Gaganyaan project includes the development and demonstration of critical technologies for long duration human space missions, says the government press release. 

“To achieve this goal, ISRO will undertake four missions under the ongoing Gaganyaan Programme by 2026 and development of the first module of BAS & four missions for demonstration & validation of various technologies for BAS by December, 2028,” the statement adds. 

India expects such a space-based facility to boost microgravity based scientific research and technology development activities. “This will lead to technological spin-offs and encourage innovations in key areas of research and development,” says the government. 

The Gaganyaan mission has received an additional funding of ₹11170 crore in the already approved programme, taking the total funding with the revised scope to ₹20193 crore.