India's Space Station Plans: Bharatiya Antariksh Station by 2035
ISRO Chairman Dr V. Narayanan reiterated that India's own space station, the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS), is targeted to be fully operational by 2035.
He said the station's first module has already been approved and is expected to be launched in the coming years as part of the expanded Gaganyaan Programme.
The remarks were made during public appearances around the third National Space Day (23 August) and IIT-BHU's 14th convocation, where Narayanan is Guest of Honour, highlighting India's expanding space applications across more than 50 sectors including Earth observation, telecommunication, disaster management, and navigation.
He also referred to continuing work on the Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme, of which the space station project is now formally a part.
Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS): India's indigenous space station
BAS is India's planned modular space station, to be assembled in low-earth orbit using the indigenous LVM3 launch vehicle. It was first announced by the Union Cabinet in 2019 as a long-term goal and formally folded into the expanded Gaganyaan Programme approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security in September 2024.
The chairman's statement that the "first module has been approved" refers to the BAS-01 Base Module now formally sanctioned within the expanded Gaganyaan Programme, distinguishing it from the earlier, less-funded standalone 2019 announcement.
Gaganyaan Programme: India's human spaceflight effort
Gaganyaan is India's first human spaceflight mission, intended to send a crew to low-earth orbit (roughly 400 km) aboard an indigenously developed crew module launched on the human-rated LVM3, with the near-term uncrewed and crewed demonstration flights serving as precursors to sustained orbital operations culminating in BAS.
Narayanan's remarks tie BAS directly to Gaganyaan's technology and crew-transport heritage — the same human-rating, life-support, docking, and re-entry technologies being validated for Gaganyaan crewed flights will be reused for ferrying crews to and operating the space station.
- BAS full operational target: 2035.
- BAS-01 Base Module launch target: 2028.
- BAS design: five modules, assembled via LVM3 launches (2028–2035).
- Revised Gaganyaan Programme outlay (approved September 2024): approximately ₹20,193 crore, covering eight missions.
- Original Gaganyaan Cabinet approval: December 2018.
- Third National Space Day was observed on 23 August 2026, commemorating Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander touchdown on 23 August 2023.