Blitz Bureau
The Indian space station — Bharatiya Antariksha Station (BAS) — is expected to be set up and running by 2035, said Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology. The MoS said announcements made in the Union Budget 2024-25 relating to the space sector have a futuristic vision.
He listed the ambitious goal of sending an Indian to Space “by the second half of 2025” and landing the first Indian on the Moon by 2040”.
“In 2023, we saw an investment of Rs.1,000 crore. The projection is that the space economy will grow five times in the next 10 years or around $44 billion,” Singh said.
He informed that Gaganyaan — India’s first human spaceflight mission — delayed due to Covid, will take flight next year. “The trial flights are going on,” he said. In addition, India is also aiming to send “robot flights, where a female robot, Vayumitra, will be sent to space in 2025”. The robot will do all the activities of an astronaut, return to Earth, and be extracted from the landing craft.
Another space startup Skyroot, which carried out the first-ever private sub-orbital launch, is now working on being the first to develop a rocket in the private sector, he noted.
