India plans to launch own space station

NEW DELHI: India is planning an ambitious project to launch its own space station, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Sivan said on Thursday. The space station project will be an extension of the Gaganyaan programme.“We are planning to have a separate space station. We will not be a part of International Space Station. Our space station is going to be very small. We will be launching a small module and that will be used for carrying out microgravity experiments,” K Sivan was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

The proposal will be sent to the government for approval after the first Gaganyaan mission. The ISRO chief said the weight of the space station is likely to be 20 tonnes. A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting crew members, designed to remain in space for an extended period of time and for other spacecraft to dock.

ISRO is looking at 5 to 7 years time frame for execution of the programme. The International Space Station (ISS) is the only fully functioning space station in Earth’s lower orbit at present. The ISS is a partnership between European countries represented by European Space Agency, the United States (NASA), Japan (JAXA), Canada (CSA) and Russia (Roscosmos). It is the world’s largest international cooperative programme in science and technology. China also plans to build a space station of its own.