Our Bureau
Bengaluru
India’s space ambitions are entering a high‑gear phase, with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) laying out a tightly packed roadmap that stretches from the maiden Gaganyaan human‑spaceflight mission to two Chandrayaan lunar missions by 2028. ISRO chairman V Narayanan has described the period as a “golden era” for Indian space, with human spaceflight, deep‑space exploration and a growing private launch ecosystem set to redefine the country’s role in the global space economy.
At the heart of the plan is Gaganyaan, India’s first crewed space programme, which aims to launch three uncrewed test flights before putting Indian astronauts into low‑Earth orbit. The first crewed mission is targeted for 2026, positioning India alongside the United States, Russia and China as one of the few nations capable of independent human spaceflight. Parallel to this, ISRO is scaling up launch cadence, planning multiple Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) missions to deploy earth‑observation, communication and scientific payloads.
On the lunar front, Chandrayaan‑4, a complex sample‑return mission, is pencilled in for 2028, building on the success of Chandrayaan‑3 and aiming to bring Moon rocks back to Earth for detailed study. ISRO is also eyeing a Venus orbiter and has begun preliminary work on a Bharatiya Antariksh Station, with the first module expected in orbit by 2028 and the full station targeted for 2035.
Narayanan has repeatedly stressed that the focus is on national priorities rather than direct competition with private players such as SpaceX, even as India seeks to grow its space economy share from about 2% to 8% in the coming years. With Gaganyaan, multiple Chandrayaan missions and a nascent space station on the drawing board, India’s space roadmap through 2028 is shaping up as one of the most ambitious in the Global South.
