India’s space journey has evolved beyond a string of spectacular missions. It has the national pulse and is a source of daily inspiration. In June 2025, when Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla displayed the Tricolour aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it was a moment of pride for every Indian. The Prime Minister called it a “defining chapter” of Amrit Kaal (‘era of nectar’), and for many, that moment felt like India’s ascent was a part of their own heartbeat. It was not just science. It was identity being reshaped through vision and purposeful programmes.

That same spirit has been echoed earlier, on August 23, 2023, when Chandrayaan-3 made India the first nation to land near the lunar south pole. “India is now on the Moon,” declared Mr. Modi — words which rippled through classrooms, villages and living rooms alike. India’s lunar programme has been truly path breaking: Chandrayaan-1 (2008) confirmed the presence of water molecules; Chandrayaan-2 (2019) mapped the moon with high precision and prepared the ground for Chandrayaan-3 (2023), which achieved the world’s first soft landing near the south pole. When the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover explored the lunar surface for a full moon day, this led children to draw depictions of lunar landscapes in notebooks, it left researchers feeling vindicated, and inspired citizens who saw India’s story in space as also their own future.

India has become a trusted global partner in space. Over 400 foreign satellites have been launched aboard Indian rockets. In 2014, India became the first Asian nation and only the fourth in the world to reach Mars orbit — and on its maiden attempt, with the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan). The Aditya-L1 mission (2023), built through multi-institutional collaboration, is providing unprecedented insights into the sun’s corona and its impact on space weather. XPoSat (2024) is studying black holes, while SpaDeX (2024) has demonstrated in-orbit docking for future space stations and lunar missions.

A new space vision

These milestones are reshaping policy, culture, and aspiration. The road map is bold: continuation of the Gaganyaan programme for human spaceflight, Chandrayaan-4 and 5 for deeper lunar exploration, a dedicated Venus mission, a Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS) by 2035, and an Indian human landing on the Moon by 2040. These are not distant dreams but national goals, aligned with the spirit of Amrit Kaal.

The Prime Minister has called for building a pool of 40 to 50 trained astronauts for future missions. On National Space Day 2025 (August 23), he urged young citizens to see themselves as participants in India’s human space programme. Gaganyaan, with an approved outlay of over ₹20,000 crore, is advancing steadily. Four Indian Air Force test pilots are undergoing training, and a series of uncrewed and crewed flights will culminate in India’s first indigenous human space mission, presently targeted for 2027.

Space technology today is woven into the fabric of governance and daily life. Satellites deliver disaster warnings, guide fishermen, assess crop yields and insurance claims, enhance railway safety, and power the geospatial backbone of the PM Gati Shakti programme. Space is no longer a distant luxury but a democratic utility — accessible to every citizen.

At the same time, space exploration fuels Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, advanced research, and workforce development. Future-ready technologies in space operations autonomy, robotics, in-space manufacturing, surveillance and interplanetary travel are being developed, ensuring that India retains leadership in this strategic frontier.

The transformation of India’s space sector is deliberate and ambitious. The opening of the field to private players, creating a thriving ecosystem of more than 350 startups building satellites, launch vehicles, and ground systems. The space budget has nearly tripled — from ₹5,615 crore in 2013-14 to ₹13,416 crore in 2025-26 — and has been augmented by nearly ₹5,000 crore in user funds. India’s space economy, currently valued at $8 billion, is projected to grow to $44 billion in the years ahead, creating jobs, industries and innovations that orbit around this sector.

Inspiring the next generation

The Prime Minister has challenged the ecosystem to deliver five space unicorns within the next five years and to scale up annual launches, nearly ten-fold, to 50 a year. With private participation, India is advancing technologies related to semi-cryogenics, electric propulsion, quantum communication and in-orbit servicing.

Youth are at the heart of this vision. The International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics hosted in India (August 2025) drew nearly 300 participants from over 60 countries, with Indian students winning medals. Initiatives such as the ISRO Robotics Challenge and Indian Space Hackathon/Bharatiya Antariksh Hackathon are bringing school and college students into direct contact with rovers, satellites and rockets, building confidence that the laboratories and launchpads of tomorrow are theirs to claim.

At the policy level, the National Meet 2.0 held just before National Space Day produced 5,000-plus pages of documentation across 300 user interactions. This 15-year road map aligns every mission with the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.

Global collaborations and leadership

Space has been consistently projected as a global commons, where India’s leadership translates into shared progress. The South Asia Satellite has provided neighbours with communication capacity, while during India’s G-20 Presidency in 2023, India announced a “G20 satellite” for climate and environmental monitoring with data shared with all nations. Collaborative missions such as NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Thermal infraRed Imaging Satellite for High-resolution Natural resource Assessment (TRISHNA) with CNES (French space agency), Lunar Polar Exploration (LUPEX) with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and India’s participation in the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Proba-3 demonstrate India’s rise as a global partner, guided by the ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (‘the world is one family’).

India’s space journey is more than rockets and satellites. It is about a nation discovering new ways to see itself. The salute of Shubhanshu Shukla aboard the ISS, the landing of Chandrayaan-3, 350 startups from small towns designing space systems, young students competing in Olympiads, and satellites quietly serving national security and citizen services are all part of the same story.

In this Amrit Kaal, India is not simply participating in the space age. It is shaping it. With ambition, confidence, and purpose, Bharat looks to the stars knowing that the horizon belongs to it too.

S. Somanath was former Secretary, Department of Space, and Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He is now Distinguished Visiting Professor, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, and Adviser (Space Technology), Government of Andhra Pradesh. The views expressed are personal

Published – January 01, 2026 12:16 am IST

ISRO’s launch vehicle GSLV-F16 carrying the NISAR earth observation satellite lifts off from the launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, on July 30, 2025.
| Photo Credit: PTI

ISRO Chairman and Secretary, Department of Space S. Somanath
| Photo Credit: PTI

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) have inked an agreement to design and conduct experiments, which will then be integrated into the forthcoming Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS), India’s proposed indigenous space station.

The BAS is expected to take shape from 2028-2035.

Some of the experiments being mooted include how weightlessness can influence muscle loss on those in space, what kind of algae may be suitable as nutrients or to preserve food for longer, how some algae may be processed to make jet fuel and the impact of radiation on the health of those aboard space stations.

Before the BAS, the major mission on ISRO’s plate is the Gaganyaan mission, which will be India’s first crewed mission to space that is expected to launch in 2025-2026. Prior to that there will be three, uncrewed test missions. Some of the biology missions could be included in these test missions.

“In some of the test flights (uncrewed) prior to the main Gaganyaan mission, we may consider including some of these experiments. Which ones specifically, we are yet to decide,” S. Somanath, Chairman, ISRO, told The Hindu. “Based on what we learn, we could consider some experiments in Gaganyaan. However, the primary plan is for the BAS.”

The International Space Station (ISS), which is a collaborative venture involving the United States, Canada, Russia, Japan, has been operational, in its complete form, since 1998. But with changing geo-politics and costs, the ISS is expected to be decommissioned by 2030. Some countries are moving to build their own space stations. China launched the base module of its station, Tiangong, in 2021 and has complete the tri-modular station as of November 2022. The station hosts regular crewed missions.

The ISRO-DBT collaboration stems from another initiative this year called the BIOE3 (Biotechnology for Economy, Environment and Employment) policy by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) that aims to stimulate ‘bio-manufacturing’ in India. The bio-economy, officials in the DBT said, would be worth $300 billion by 2030.

“The space bio-manufacturing sector is part of this. This agreement will spur innovation and developments in human health research, novel pharmaceuticals, biotherapeutics, regenerative medicine, bio-based technologies for waste management as well as support multiple start-ups,” said Rajesh Gokhale, Secretary, DBT.

After a busy 2023, things have been quiet at Sriharikota, India’s spaceport. But silence at the spaceport does not imply that India’s space programme itself has been dormant. A lot has been happening since the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully landed the lander of its Chandrayaan 3 mission, Vikram, on the surface of the moon.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared this date, August 23, India’s National Space Day.

Highlights in the last year

Aditya L1: India followed its lunar success with the successful launch of its solar science mission Aditya-L1 on September 2, 2023. The launch was the easiest part of the mission, onboard ISRO’s workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The spacecraft executed a series of manoeuvres to move into an orbit around the first earth-Sun Lagrange point, called L1, on January 6, 2024. It completed its first orbit around L1 on July 2, 2024. In this time, it studied a solar storm in May 2024 together with observatories on the ground and spacecraft in lunar orbit.

Gaganyaan TV-D1: ISRO used a modified L-40 Vikas engine to build its Test Vehicle (TV) that it used to perform the first abort mission (TV-D1) on October 21, 2023, as part of its ‘Gaganyaan’ human spaceflight mission. The mission demonstrated the ability of the Crew Escape System (CES) to separate from the TV, take the crew module to safety, and the crew module’s ability to decelerate before splashing down in the Bay of Bengal. The crew module at the test’s end was recovered by the Indian Navy vessel INS Shakthi.

XPoSat: ISRO celebrated the new year with the launch of its X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) on January 1, 2024. The satellite will study how radiation is polarised and thus learn more about various sources of radiation in space. It is the second such space-based observatory after NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IPEX), launched in 2021. The two instruments on board XPoSat, called XSPECT and POLIX, began operating after launch on January 5 and 10.

INSAT-3DS: ISRO launched the meteorological satellite INSAT-3DS on February 17 onboard a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). This mission was important to prove the vehicle’s credibility before the critical NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, now expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2025. This version of the GSLV had previously successfully launched the NVS-01 satellite in 2023.

RLV-TD: ISRO used a downscale version of the Reusable Launch Vehicle, called Pushpak, to conduct two landing experiments (LEX-02 and LEX-03) on March 22 and June 7 at its Aeronautical Testing Range in Challakere, Karnataka. The tests simulated landing conditions from space by dropping the Pushpak vehicle from a Chinook helicopter. While LEX-02 dropped Pushpak along its landing path, LEX-03 dropped it 500 metres to one side. The success of these tests gave ISRO the confidence to move on to the Orbital Return Flight Experiment (OREX).

SSLV: On August 16, ISRO launched the third and final development flight of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), placing the EOS-08 and the SR-0 Demosat satellites in orbit. With two consecutively successful test flights, ISRO declared the SSLV’s development complete and green-lit its transfer to industry. EOS-08 carried three payloads: one for earth observation in the infrared range, one to demonstrate the use of reflections from a global satellite navigation system for earth observation, and one ultraviolet dosimeter and alarm to be tested ahead of their use in the Gaganyaan crew module.

ISRO roadmaps

After handing over operational responsibilities to NewSpace India, Ltd. (NSIL), ISRO has been prioritising research. In December 2023, ISRO Chairman S. Somanath announced a 25-year roadmap, until 2047, for Gaganyaan. It intersects with the lunar exploration roadmap in the form of an Indian landing on the Moon by 2040.

Mr. Somanath also shared a lunar exploration roadmap that includes — apart from an Indian on the moon — a lunar sample-return mission, a long-duration mission on the lunar surface, docking with NASA’s Lunar Gateway (under the Artemis programme), building habitats on the lunar surface.

Gaganyaan

One of ISRO’s primary focus areas of late has been to train its astronaut-candidates, or Gaganyatris, for spaceflight.

Prime Minister Modi revealed the candidates names on February 27: Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla and Group Captains Prashanth Nair, Ajit Krishnan, and Angad Pratap.

Earlier this month, Mr. Shukla and Mr. Nair travelled to the U.S. for advanced training leading up to one of them flying to the International Space Station (ISS). This is likely to be Mr. Shukla, with Mr. Nair his designated back-up. The mission will be conducted by Axiom Space, a private company, with inputs from NASA and onboard SpaceX’s launch vehicle and crew capsule. The flight is scheduled for 2025.

ISRO has also planned at least four more abort tests using its test vehicle before the historic crewed flight. The first uncrewed Gaganyaan mission is expected to fly in late 2024.

Mr. Somanath’s roadmap also includes plans to build an Indian space station called the ‘Bharatiya Antariksh Station’ (BAS) by 2035.

Next-generation Launch Vehicle

Since India is aspiring to both the BAS and a full-fledged lunar programme, it requires a new launch vehicle that can deliver heavier payloads per launch than its PSLV or GSLV rockets. This is set to be ISRO’s Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV).

The organisation has set up a team led by Project Director S. Sivakumar, which submitted a project report to the Union Cabinet in February with a specific request for funding and details of the NGLV, including manufacturing requirements.

ISRO has planned for NGLV to be a three-stage launch vehicle powered by a semi-cryogenic engine, a liquid engine, and a cryogenic engine. ISRO doesn’t plan to continue the use of the GSLV once the NGLV is ready. The PSLV on the other hand is already under production by a private consortium led by Larsen & Toubro and Hindustan Aeronautics, Ltd.

But until then, ISRO is working on developing the semi-cryogenic engine for the LVM-3 rocket — another name for the GSLV Mk III — to enhance its launch capability. On May 2 and 21, it successfully tested the engine’s pre-burner ignition test article in important milestones.

NSIL missions

ISRO is focusing on research because the NSIL has been tasked with conducting missions and chaperoning commercial activities. On May 1, ISRO transferred all commercial activities related to Indian Remote Sensing satellite data and products to the NSIL.

The NSIL signed an agreement with SpaceX to launch the GSAT-20/GSAT-N2 satellite, its second demand-driven satellite. LVM-3 is currently not capable of launching this 4,700-tonne machine. SpaceX is expected to launch it in August 2024 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

On May 10, the NSIL also released a request for qualification for the production of LVM-3 through a public-private partnership and signed a dedicated launch service agreement with an Australian private space company to launch the SSLV.

Private space missions

Private company Agnikul Cosmos successfully launched its SoRTeD-01 vehicle from its launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on March 21. This was the first launch of a vehicle powered by a semi-cryogenic engine as its first stage from Indian soil.

Skyroot Aerospace is progressing towards the launch of its launch vehicle, Vikram 1. It had previously pressure-tested its solid-fuel engines between May and July 2024 and launched a test vehicle called Vikram S from Sriharikota on November 18, 2022.

Dhruva Space and Bellatrix Aerospace flew their experiments on the fourth and final stages of the PSLV-C58 mission on January 1. (In this mission, the fourth stage turned itself into a small satellite, giving the payloads onboard an orbiting platform to conduct their studies).

IN-SPACe

In the last year, there have been several notable policy updates and licences issued by India’s new space regulator, IN-SPACe. Most importantly, it released the ‘Norms, Guidelines, and Procedures for Authorisation of Space Activities’ on May 3.

It also granted the country’s first satellite broadband licence to Eutelsat OneWeb on November 21, 2023, and granted the first licence for a ground station as a service, to be provided by Dhruva Space on July 15.

Finally, on February 21, the Government of India amended its foreign direct investment (FDI) policy to allow 100% direct FDI in all space and spaceflight segments except for a 74% ceiling in satellite manufacturing and operations and 49% in launch infrastructure.

Pradeep Mohandas is a technical writer and space enthusiast in Pune.