In a boost to the space programme, the government on Wednesday approved the Chandrayaan-4 mission to bring back moon rocks to earth, to send a spacecraft to orbit planet Venus and to expand the Gaganyaan project to build an Indian space station.
One spacecraft will be Indian Space Research Organisation's own Chandrayaan-2, while the other will be from India's first private moonshot Team Indus which is competing in the Google LunarXPrize challenge.
Chandrayan's operations will be controlled by robots and cover 3.50 lakh kilometre within a period of two years, ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has received approval for the Chandrayaan-5 mission, which aims to study the Moon's surface using a 250kg rover. The mission will be conducted in collaboration with Japan. This follows the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, which achieved a soft landing on the Moon's South Pole in August 2023. ISRO is also planning to establish a space station, Bharatiya Space Station, in the near future.
The ISRO will launch its ambitious and maiden mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-I, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on April 9, 2008. "We are looking for a launch on April 9," Mylswamy Annadurai, head of Chandrayaan-I said.
Amit Kshatriya, a decorated Indian-American and NASA veteran, has been appointed as NASA's new associate administrator, marking a significant step in the agency's exploration efforts.
An entire nation waited, praying and hoping fervently, as the countdown to touch down on the moon wound to a slow close on Wednesday with many thousands gathering in schools, places of worship and elsewhere and scientists doing last minute checks to ensure Chandrayaan-3 makes a soft landing on the lunar south pole.
ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said Chandrayaan-2, to be undertaken by 2010, will have a proper lander, which would land on the lunar surface and try to explore the surface in far more detail.
New data from India's Chandrayaan-3 mission suggests that ice might be present at more locations on the Moon's surface than previously believed. The study, published in Communications Earth and Environment, analyzed temperature data collected by the ChaSTE probe onboard the Vikram lander. The researchers found that significant variations in surface temperatures can influence the formation of ice, with slopes angled away from the Sun potentially providing favorable conditions for ice accumulation. The findings have implications for future lunar exploration, suggesting that water-ice resources could be more accessible than previously thought.
It was former President A P J Abdul Kalam's idea to paint the Indian flag on the Moon. Minutes after his dream was realized, a relieved Kalam is seen holding a globe with the Tricolour on it. ISRO chief Madhavan Nair is also seen.
Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station, piloted by Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla with three other crew members, has been delayed and will now be launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on June 8 at 6:41 pm IST.
At least four babies, three boys and a girl, who were born in the Kendrapara district hospital here on Wednesday evening were named so by their overwhelmed parents.
The role of the space sector in armed conflicts came into sharp focus during Operation Sindoor, which saw extensive use of drones and loitering munitions and tested the capabilities of air defence systems such as indigenously developed Akash Teer.
The soft landing of the spacecraft is planned for late August. The mission is expected to be supportive to future interplanetary missions.
Here is the timeline of the moon mission as undertaken by the Indian Space Research Organisation.
A group of students from Coimbatore have designed a robot that is capable of conducting specific lunar missions.
India's ambitious unmanned lunar mission `Chandrayan' is likely to soar into the skies in the second week of October, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair said on Wednesday."The satellite integration is almost complete. And we would be entering the thermovac in about a week's time. It takes about 45-50 days for the launch after thermovac, after which we would declare the date. The earliest is October," he said.
The next operation - reduction of orbit- will be done at 11 PM on Sunday, ISRO added.
Shukla said the two missions presented a major opportunity for the country and the sustained commitment of the government to the space sector, despite setbacks such as the Chandrayaan-II mission was laudable.
Conducting in-situ scientific experiments is underway. All payloads are performing normally, ISRO said.
Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to the Moon, was launched on October 22, 2008 from Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh.
Film folk like Akshay Kumar, Chiranjeevi, Jr NTR and Sunny Deol congratulated the country and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the historic achievement of Chandrayaan-3's landing on the Moon.
On Friday, July 14, India launched its ambitious third lunar mission Chandrayaan 3, eyeing a rare feat in moon exploration.
After the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon on Wednesday, August 23, Bollywood has joined India to laud ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) and its team for the historic mission.
Russia's state space corporation, Roskosmos, according to the Reuters report, said it had lost contact with the spacecraft shortly after a problem occurred as it was shunted into pre-landing orbit on Saturday.
The Human-rated LVM3 vehicle, the Crew Escape System and the Crew Module and Service Module are all in final stages of testing and integration.
The space strategist said that this shows that one should not take anything for granted in space exploration.
Only three countries (United States, Russia and China) have successfully landed spacecraft on the airless lunar surface.
The imaging technology in Nisar can provide very high-resolution data on changes as small as one centimetre in size on the earth's surface.
The crater was formed during the Nectarian period, which dates back to 3.85 billion years and is one of the oldest time periods in the Moon's history, the team, including researchers from the Physical Research Laboratory and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Ahmedabad, said.
He noted that Chandrayaan-3 will be inserted into the lunar transfer trajectory after the orbit raising manoeuvres.
Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, India's second astronaut, shares his journey from a shy child hearing stories of Rakesh Sharma to becoming part of the Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station. He emphasizes the role of the IAF in his transformation and inspires India's youth to explore space.
ISRO Chairman V Narayanan announced the development of a massive rocket capable of placing 75,000 kg payloads in low earth orbit, highlighting India's growing space capabilities and future satellite launches.
Chandrayaan-3 mission's rover 'Pragyan' has traversed a distance of about eight metres on the lunar surface, and its payloads have been turned on, ISRO said on Friday.
This is the third time that Tamil Nadu has supplied the necessary soil to the Bengaluru headquartered space agency for performing the tests for its ambitious Moon missions.
The Aditya-L1 mission carries seven scientific payloads to carry out the study.
Dubbed as a prelude to ISRO setting up its own Space Station by 2035, the PSLV-C60 mission would also make India join an elite club in achieving this feat which is expected to take place in the coming days.
ISRO is part of an exclusive league which has forayed into the Moon and Sun.
Somanath thanked all those who prayed for the mission's success, and ISRO veterans like A S Kiran Kumar , the space agency's former chief.
India's ambitious third Moon mission's spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 after the launch on July 14, had entered into lunar orbit or the Moon's orbit on August 5.
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