India steps up space ambitions, eyes crewed missions and space station — SkimNews
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- India's Gaganyaan programme is approaching its first uncrewed orbital mission, targeted for Q4 2025, with the first crewed flight planned for 2027 in a bid to become only the fourth country — after the US, Russia, and China — to independently send humans to orbit.
- Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the first Indian to visit the International Space Station last year via the commercial Axiom Mission 4, and Gaganyaan itself involves international partners for astronaut training, communications, and recovery.
- The three-day Bengaluru Space Expo (closing Sep 9) put human spaceflight front and center; selected astronauts Shukla and Air Commodore Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair said the shift from satellite to crewed missions requires fundamentally different safety protocols and training.
- Chandrayaan-4, targeted for 2027, is designed to collect lunar samples and return them to Earth — a step toward India's goal of launching the first module of its own space station by 2028 and landing an Indian astronaut on the moon by 2040.
- UK Space Agency head of technology Tony Forsythe pointed to Chandrayaan-3 as evidence of India's growing capabilities and said UK-India space cooperation has 'a really exciting and promising future.'
- Japan-based ispace regional manager Masayuki Urata said the lunar exploration company is looking to support firms testing technologies on and around the moon as India's ambitions expand.
Why it matters: If Gaganyaan succeeds, India breaks into a club of three — joining the US, Russia, and China as the only nations with independent crewed orbital capability — a milestone that unlocks deeper partnerships with the UK and Japan and underwrites India's stated path to a 2028 space station and 2040 lunar landing.
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