"India will have its own space station during the Amrit Kaal in the next 25 years," said Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S Somanath while speaking at the Bharatiya Vigyan Sammelan organised by Vijnana Bharati, an NGO working to popularise science, in Ahmedabad.
The mission, the first Indian space-based observatory to study the Sun from a halo orbit L1, was launched by the ISRO on September 2 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikota.
"Aditya-L1 will enter the L1 point on January 6. That is what is expected. The exact time will be announced at the appropriate time," Somanath told media persons in Ahmedabad on Friday on the sidelines of the Bharatiya Vigyan Sammelan.
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"By 2028, we will launch the first module, that is the target. In another seven years, that is by 2035, we will build further modules and make the space station fully operational," the ISRO chief said.
He added that the ISRO is developing a launch vehicle to carry heavier loads to have the space station ready by 2035.
"This is because, for the 2028 launch (of the first module), we do not have a powerful rocket. We have a rocket called LVM-3, which can only take 10 tonnes, so the first module will be an eight-tonne mass module, which we will launch by 2028," Somanath was quoted as saying.
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The ISRO chief said a new rocket is being developed, which will be able to “carry a load of 20 of 1,215 tonnes" because "they cannot be launched in the current rocket (which can only take 10 tonnes)."
Somanath said the Indian space organisation will seek approval for it and it will take about seven years to develop it.
"The 2028 launch will be a robotic module, a satellite, where we can dock, conduct experiments and come back. A human being going (to the space station) can happen only after 2035. This is the plan as of today," he was quoted as saying.
“By 2023, we should be able to send an ISS into space with human beings," he was quoted by the Times of India as saying. "A human being going (to the space station) can happen only after 2035. This is the plan as of today," he reportedly said.
Meanwhile, the ISRO announced a major update in India's first solar mission, Aditya-L1. The space agency said that the Aditya-L1 spacecraft is expected to reach its destination on January 6.
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