While India's interplanetary ambitions remain significant, the current pace of financial and technical progress raises questions about whether the 2027-2028 timelines can be met.
ISRO Chairman V Narayanan has emphasised the critical role of mission operations in ensuring the success of India's expanding space programme. He highlighted this at the Spacecraft Mission Operations conference, noting the importance of sustained teamwork and operational precision, particularly for long-duration missions like Chandrayaan-3 and the upcoming Gaganyaan programme.
For the first time, there will be an Indian connection to a crewed Moon mission.
Indian Space Research Organisation is gearing up for one of its busiest times with seven more launches planned this financial year, even as India's first human spaceflight remains scheduled for 2027, its chairman V Narayanan said.
On Friday, SpaceX and NASA launched a mission to bring back US astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore from the ISS, where they have been stranded for nine months.
"Once the astronaut returns to Earth, they are immediately forced to readjust again, back to Earth's gravity, and can experience issues standing, stabilising their gaze, walking and turning. For their safety, returning astronauts are often placed in a chair immediately upon return to Earth," the Houston-based Baylor College of Medicine said in a note on body changes in space.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stranded on the ISS for nine months after reaching there in June last year. They were supposed to stay there for about a week.
Indian-origin Astronaut Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are scheduled to leave the International Space station by March 19 at the earliest, said NASA.
The spacecraft, Elon Musk-led SpaceX's Dragon, will splash down off the coast of the American state of Florida around 3:27 am IST Wednesday.
NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, stranded at the International Space Station for over nine months, will return to Earth on Tuesday evening, NASA announced in a statement.
Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore have been stranded on the International Space Station since June 2024.
The agency said it is currently receiving a signal from the lander, which is communicating as expected.
The successful launch of the maiden solar mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation came on the heels of the historic lunar landing mission - Chandrayaan-3.
Friday's successful launch comes as shot in the arm for the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.
The rover, Zhurong, named after a god of fire and war in Chinese mythology, landed at the pre-selected area in Utopia Planitia on Mars, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The weight of the space station is likely to be 20 tonnes.
The ISRO is looking at Mangalyaan-2, a follow-on mission to Mars, and launching two satellites that would look at Venus and explore asteroids.
More than 3,000 squads under health and local self-government departments have started the process of cleaning houses and public places, official sources said.
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