Space beyond Chandrayaan: Will Artemis Accords be a game-changer for India?

The moon mission follows up on earlier missions, but the recently signed Artemis Accords with Nasa have the potential to be a bigger game changer

The successful launch of Chandrayaan III has hogged most of the space-related headlines in the recent past. But Chandrayaan III is actually business as usual in that it is the next logical step in the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (Isro) long-term plans whereas India’s recent signup to the Artemis Accords and the thrust of the new Space Policy are likely to push the space programme to entirely new heights.

Chandrayaan III follows up on two earlier Isro moon missions. The first of these, in 2008, discovered water ice on the moon while the second in 2019 managed to place a