India Plans to build its own Space Station

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has unveiled its plan to build its own space station in low earth orbit to conduct microgravity experiments in space in 5 to 7 years.

Indian Space Station

• The proposed Indian Space Station would be smaller than the existing International Space Station (ISS). While the ISS weighs 420 tonnes, Indian station is expected to have a payload of 20 tonnes.
• It is expected to be set up at an altitude of 400 kilometres from earth.
• Indian Space Station would enable Indian astronauts to fly regularly for conducting microgravity experiments.
• The size of the Indian Space station would be little more than two Gaganyaan crew modules.

The prospects of setting up Indian space station would hinge on successes ‘Gaganyaan’ human space mission under which two to three Indian astronauts would be sent to space for a period of up to seven days before India celebrates its 75 anniversary of its independence. ISRO is yet to work out the cost of the project and would then approach the government for approval.

International Space Station

The International Space Station is a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit at an altitude of between 330 and 435 km (205 and 270 mi). The ISS maintains the altitudinal position by means of re-boost manoeuvres and circles the Earth in roughly 92 minutes and completes 15.5 orbits per day.

The ISS is a joint project between five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).