New Delhi. In a boost to the space programme, the government on Wednesday approved the Chandrayaan-4 mission, which aims to bring moon rocks back to Earth. It also approved an extension of the Gaganyaan project to send a spacecraft into orbit around Venus and build the Indian Space Station (BAS).
The Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi also approved a proposal of the Department of Space, under which a next-generation launch vehicle will be built. This vehicle will be capable of placing heavy payloads in orbit. It can also be important in achieving the goal of establishing a space station and landing Indian astronauts on the Moon.
Modi said in a post on ‘X’, “Very good news for the space sector. The Union Cabinet has approved the first step towards the Indian Space Station (BAS) by expanding the Gaganyaan program.” The Prime Minister said, “This historic decision will bring us closer to a self-sufficient space station by 2035 and a manned lunar mission by 2040.” Informing reporters about the cabinet decisions, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that the government has allocated Rs 2,104 crore for the ‘Chandrayaan-4’ mission.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman S. Somanath said, “The natural successor to Chandrayaan-3 is to demonstrate the capability to collect moon samples and return them safely to Earth.” The Cabinet has approved Rs 1,236 crore for the ‘Venus Orbiter Mission’ (VOM), which is expected to be launched in March 2028.
The ‘Venus Orbiter Mission’ operated by the Department of Space will involve placing a spacecraft in orbit around Venus to better understand its surface and subsurface, atmospheric processes and the influence of the Sun on the Venusian atmosphere.
Venus, the closest planet to Earth and thought to have formed under conditions similar to Earth, provides a unique opportunity to understand how planetary atmospheres can evolve very differently, a statement said.
It says that studying the underlying causes of changes in Venus will prove to be very helpful in understanding the evolution of both Venus and Earth. The Cabinet approved the development of a partially reusable next generation launch vehicle (NGLV), which has a payload capacity three times that of ISRO’s launch vehicle Mark-3. It allocated Rs 8,240 crore for the development of NGLV, three developmental flights, necessary facility, program management and launch campaign.
An official statement said that this will be an important step towards India’s goal of establishing and operating an Indian space station and developing the capability to land an Indian crew on the Moon by 2040. It said that the NGLV will have three times more payload capacity than the launch vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3) and will cost 1.5 times more. It also said that the partially reusable launch vehicle will provide low-cost access to space.