India Space Mission

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed creating an aura around the private sector in space research so that people worldwide feel that if they want to make a career, they should go to India. In an interaction with CEOs and founders of 20 space startups on Friday, Modi also highlighted India's cost-competitiveness in launching space ventures. He emphasised that the country's vast talent pool and high risk-taking capacity would allow India to rapidly establish a dominant position in the global space sector, according to the transcript of the interaction, which was released on Sunday. The prime minister said the world must now be looking for Indian startups wondering who is leading in this space. Because whenever a breakthrough happens, people's attention shifts immediately, he said. One of the CEOs told the prime minister that after India opened the space industry for private players, a very positive trend was observed and many Indian citizens living in the US and Europe now wan

Docking technology will be crucial for future lunar exploration and human space missions, including bringing lunar samples back to Earth and assembling India's proposed space station, a senior ISRO official said here on Tuesday. M R Raghavendra, Director of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bengaluru, was speaking at a National Space Day celebration organised by ISTRAC in collaboration with City Montessori School (CMS) in Lucknow. The school is the alma mater of astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian to visit the International Space Station. "The docking experiment is a very interesting experiment which we have conducted, as it can be very useful in future," Raghavendra said, referring to ISRO's successful space docking experiment. "Now we have landed on the Moon. Now we want to bring some samples from the Moon, and to do that, we need this docking. There will be an orbiter which goes around the Moon, and there will be a lander which picks up the sample,

More than 85 per cent of India's $11.4 billion deeptech funding since 2015 was raised in the past six years, as the sector moved from early-stage proof points to commercial validation

India has around 440 space technology startups, while private investment in the sector rose nearly six-fold to $618.5 million by March 2026, government data show

The acquisition brings StarOps' satellite platforms, indigenous spacecraft technologies and engineering expertise into GalaxEye, strengthening its capabilities across the satellite value chain

Isro plans at least 300 satellite launches over the next six years, an Indian space station by 2035 and the first uncrewed Gaganyaan mission by the end of 2026

Skyroot Aerospace aims for monthly rocket launches by end-2027 as it prepares Vikram-2 and converts rising global interest into commercial contracts

The Department of Space has tightened exit rules for ISRO scientists as the agency grapples with a shrinking workforce and concerns over declining salary expenditure

Private funding has risen nearly six-fold over the past few years, surging from $100.5 million in 2021-22 to $348.5 million in 2023-24, before reaching $618.5 million by March 31, 2026

Experts say breakthrough paves the way for launch vehicles, manufacturing, and commercial space services

In a defining milestone, Skyroot Aerospace on Saturday launched the country's first private orbital rocket and successfully placed multiple technology-demonstration payloads into the desired orbit, making India the third country with private orbital launch capabilities after the US and China. The four-stage, seven-storey-tall Vikram-1 rocket lifted off majestically at 12.05 pm amid cloudy skies from the first launch pad of ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, leaving behind plumes of orange smoke and marking a new era in the country's space missions. The Hyderabad-based company, which carries the slogan - "Redefining access to space. Your fast track to the orbit. On-demand launch vehicle for rapid, precise, and customizable small satellite deployments"- on its website, described Saturday's mission 'Aagaman' (arrival) as a "grand success". The rocket, named after Vikram Sarabhai, the father of India's space programme, also carried payloads that had postcards, including from Prime

India's first private orbital-class rocket, Vikram-1, carrying multiple technology demonstration payloads and a postcard from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, lifted off from this spaceport on Saturday. Named "Mission Aagaman" (arrival), the test flight's launch marks a historic milestone for the country's commercial space sector, executed by Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace. On a cloudy day, the seven-storey-tall, four-stage Vikram-1 rocket lifted off at 12.05 pm on Saturday from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, here. Following a "planned hold," due to apparent navigation issues, the launch was revised 35 minutes late than the original prefixed time of 11.30 am. After its initial journey of a little short of 16 minutes, Vikram-1 is expected to place the payloads, both domestic and foreign, into a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at an altitude of 450 km with an inclination of 60 degrees. Vikram-1, named after the legendary Vikram Sarabhai who is often regarded as the Fat

Vikram-1 launch: Mission Aagaman will test India's first privately developed orbital rocket and could open the door to a new era of commercial satellite launches by Indian private companies

Nasa astronaut Anil Menon and two Russian cosmonauts lifted off onboard a Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft from Kazakhstan on an eight-month mission to the International Space Station on Tuesday. The spacecraft carrying Menon and Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina lifted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome at 8:17 p.m. IST. After a two-orbit, three-hour trip to the station, the spacecraft will automatically dock at 11:56 p.m. IST to the Prichal module. Once aboard, the trio will join NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, and Chris Williams, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Sergei Mikaev, and Andrey Fedyaev.

Three years after opening the space sector to private players, India is seeing startups scale up satellite, launch vehicle and space technology capabilities

As Skyroot Aerospace prepares for Vikram-1, startups and defence giants alike are positioning themselves for India's growing commercial launch opportunity

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced on Thursday that it is inviting proposals from the Indian solar physics community to access data from the Aditya-L1 mission, the first space-based Indian mission to study the Sun. This is the second such formal call from ISRO for Indian scientists to access the Aditya-L1 mission data; the first call was made in January. "At present, there are over 27 TB of data in the public domain, and several important scientific results have been published in international peer-reviewed journals. To further maximise the scientific return from this unique mission, the ISRO has released the second Announcement of Opportunity (AO) inviting proposals from the Indian solar physics community for Aditya-L1 observation time," the ISRO said in a statement. Proposals can be submitted by Indian scientists and researchers based at institutes, universities, or colleges in India. The applicants should be involved in research in the area of solar science a

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday detailed its on-orbit observations of the NVS-02 spacecraft and the recommendations made by an Apex Committee constituted to review the issue that affected its orbit-raising operations. NVS-02, the second spacecraft in the NVS series, was injected into an elliptical transfer orbit on January 29, 2025, following its launch aboard GSLV-F15. NVS-02 was injected successfully into the elliptical transfer orbit of 170x37,785 km with 20.8 degree inclination at 00:53 UT, ISRO said in a statement. The spacecraft was separated from the launch vehicle at 01:12:08 UT, after which a series of autonomous activities on the satellite were carried out, including the solar panel deployment and stabilising the orientation for power generation, it said. "However, the orbit raising operations from the elliptical to circular orbit could not be carried out," it said. An Apex Committee was subsequently formed to examine the observations and recom

State eyes $3 bn in investment and a 50% national share as it ramps up upstream, downstream activities

ISRO is gearing up for one of its busiest times with seven more launches planned this financial year, even as India's first human spaceflight remains scheduled for 2027, its chairman V Narayanan said. In an interview with PTI, he said ISRO is preparing for a phase of rapid scaling in science, technology and industry capacity. Narayanan said ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) is targeting seven more launches before the end of the current financial year, including a commercial communication satellite, and multiple PSLV and GSLV missions. A milestone will be the launch of the first PSLV manufactured entirely by the Indian industry. The ISRO chief said the government has approved the Chandrayaan-4 mission, designed as a lunar sample-return mission and it will be India's most complex lunar endeavour yet. "We are targeting 2028 for Chandrayaan-4," he said. Another key mission is LUPEX, the joint lunar polar exploration programme with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). IS