The successful landing of India’s third lunar spacecraft, Chandrayaan-3 on August 23, is only the beginning of India’s ambitious space missions.
Repeating the words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) head, S Somanath, said on Wednesday that the “golden era” of India’s space programme has only begun.
ISRO chief Somanath said that while the focus of the space agency over the last few months has been to ensure the success of Chandrayaan-3, ISRO is also working on some other big-ticket projects that are lined up for the coming months.
Aditya-L1 is India’s first dedicated scientific mission to study the sun. "After Chandrayaan-3, we will immediately be taking up the Aditya-L1 project, which is our sun mission...It has already been integrated and has been moved to Sriharikota," said the ISRO chief.
Gaganyaan project envisages a demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of 3 members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3-day mission and bringing them back safely to earth by landing in Indian sea waters.
ISRO and JAXA are also working on a joint Lunar Polar Exploration mission called LUPEX. Under the LUPEX mission, a Japanese rocket would carry an Indian lander and a Japanese rover to the Moon.