Why in News?

• Building on the success of the Indian space initiatives, including the recent Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L1 Missions, the Indian PM announced two new targets for space agency ISRO.
• The two new targets are setting up an Indian space station by 2035 and taking the first Indian to Moon by 2040.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Timeline of ISRO’s Milestones
• Future Targets Set by ISRO

Timeline of ISRO’s Milestones:

• Chandrayaan-3 Mission: It was successfully launched from the SDSC SHAR, India, on 14 July 2023 on a mission to demonstrate new technologies and to achieve India’s first soft landing on the moon.
• Aditya L1 Mission: It is India's first space-based observatory to study the Sun. It was successfully launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre today i.e., on 2 September, 2023.

Future Targets Set by ISRO:

• Gaganyaan Mission/ India’s human space flight programme: A high-level meeting was chaired by the Indian PM to assess the progress of Gaganyaan Mission, under which the first test vehicle is slated to fly on October 21.
  • Many technologies such as the human-rated launch vehicle, crew escape system, space suit, and the system to maintain the environment inside the crew module are being developed for the first time for the Gaganyaan mission.
• Bharatiya Antariksha Station (Indian Space Station): The PM directed that India should now aim for new and ambitious goals, including setting up Indian Space Station by 2035.
  • The first indication of a sustained human programme and an eventual space station came in 2019 from the then ISRO chief K Sivan.
  • He said the Indian space station is likely to be much smaller, built by combining a couple of modules similar to the current crew module, weighing only 20 tonnes (ISS - 450 tonnes and Chinese Tiangong Space Station - 100 tonnes).
• Sending first Indian to the Moon by 2040: The Department of Space has been tasked with developing a roadmap for Moon exploration, including a series of Chandrayaan missions. The next Chandrayaan mission is likely to bring back Moon samples.
• Preparations for a Venus mission: The current ISRO chief S Somanath recently stated that it has already been configured.
  • While he did not provide details of the scientific experiments on the mission, a 2019 proposal had said that there would be 12 payloads, including a thermal camera, mass spectrometer and a cloud-monitoring camera.
• Other targets: In addition, ISRO will also work on a next generation launch vehicle, a new launch pad, and human-centric laboratories and technologies.