Faridabad: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to begin the first round of testing for the proposed space station by next year, ISRO chairman S Somanath said on Thursday.
The ISRO chief was addressing the India International Science Festival that is being organised from January 17 to 20 in Faridabad. "If everything goes well, India will have its own space station by 2028. Discussions are on to complete the manufacturing, testing and launching of the first module of the space station by 2028. A target has been set to complete establishing the entire space station by 2035," Somanath said adding that the design of the station is currently being reviewed and will be implemented very soon.
Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set a target to ISRO to establish Bharatiya Space Station by 2035. PM Modi had also said that an Indian astronaut would land on moon by 2040.
Somanath said that they aim is to include the station in the laboratory so as to undertake the research work. He told that the proposed space station will have a crew command module, docking board, habitat module and propulsion module. The estimated weight of this entire capsule will be 25 tonnes that can be increased depending on the expansion of the station, he said.
Emphasising on the importance of space technology, Somanath said it has an impact on various fields ranging from agriculture and remote sensing to navigation, transportation, water resources and infrastructure. He said that ISRO had opened its doors for startups in the year 2023. He congratulated the participants and expressed hope that the ongoing science festival would prove to be an important learning opportunity for the students.
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