India To Have Its Own Space Station, S Somanath Reveals ISRO's Mega Plan

New Delhi: After leaving a mark on the moon with its Chandrayaan-3 mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is now getting ready to establish its first-ever space station. The Indian space agency is already working on its Mars and Venus missions and chief S Somnath has revealed the ISRO's big plan for the space station.

In an interview with CGTN, the ISRO Chairman said that the Indian space agency is exploring various possibilities for future missions including the launching of a space station and long-duration human spaceflight. "We are looking at all the possibilities after the success of the Moon mission," Somanath said. "We are looking at what kind of science you can do. We are looking at how the space station can become beneficial for the Indian space economy," he added.

After Chandrayaan-3's successful landing on the south pole of the moon on August 23, 2023, ISRO also launched its maiden solar mission Aditya L-1 to place it into a halo orbit around Lagrangian Point 1 (or L1), which is 1.5 million km away from the Earth in the direction of the sun. 

The Indian space agency is also working on its Gaganyaan mission which aims at developing a human-habitable space capsule that will carry a three-member crew into an orbit of 400 km (250 miles) for three days, before returning to safety in a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean.