ISRO Chairman S Somanath has revealed more details about the future of India’s space programme, as all previously planned missions have been accelerated due to ambitious new targets set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ISRO following the incredible success of Chandrayaan 3.

ISRO has been given the task of setting up its own space station in India by 2035 and using indigenous equipment to land an Indian astronaut on the lunar surface by 2040.

The roadmap was presented at the Indian Society of Geomatics (ISG) and National Symposium 2023. at the Symbiosis Geoinformatics Institute, Indian Remote Sensing Society (ISRS), Pune, Maharashtra.

Somanath said ISRO faces the following tasks:

• Create your own space station by 2035;
• Using domestic equipment to land a spacecraft on the lunar surface by 2040;
• The new lunar mission, Chandrayaan-4, will have a similar hardware setup as China’s Chanye 5 mission and will bring samples of lunar soil to Earth.
• The “Gaganyan” program is no longer limited to sending Gaganauts into Earth orbit and will also include more ambitious missions up to lunar orbit.
• India’s ultimate goal is to create a lunar base where Gaganauts will be permanently stationed by 2047.

To implement this large-scale program, India plans to collaborate with other countries, relying on Japan and the United States.