2023-10-18 17:32:27
The prime minister’s announcement comes as the world’s most populous country prepares to carry out a key test flight on Saturday, for its first crewed space mission. Building on “the success” of its space initiatives, India must “now aim for new and ambitious objectives, including the creation of the Bharatiya Antariksha Station (Indian Space Station) by 2035 and the sending of the first Indian on the Moon by 2040,” Mr. Modi said Tuesday in a statement released Tuesday evening.
The leader asked officials of the Indian space agency to prepare “a series of missions” to the Moon.
India was the first country to land a craft near the virtually unexplored lunar South Pole in August and successfully launched a spacecraft a month later to observe the Sun’s outermost layers. In 2014, India became the first Asian country to put a satellite into orbit around Mars, and its space agency launched 104 satellites in a single mission in 2017.
India is currently focused on its first manned mission to space, called Gaganyaan (space vehicle). The three-day mission, expected to take place next year, aims to send three crew members into Earth’s orbit at a cost of just over $1 billion, according to the national agency.
The country also plans to launch a probe to the Moon, in collaboration with Japan, another to Mars and an orbital mission to Venus over the next two years.
India has managed to compete with established space powers, for much more modest budgets. Experts say it can keep its costs low by copying and adapting existing technology, as well as through a plethora of highly skilled engineers who earn a fraction of the salaries of their global counterparts.
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