Gaganyaan Launch in 2025; Indian on Moon by 2040: Key Takeaways From PM's Review Meet

India’s Gaganyaan mission will be launched in 2025 while the Indian Space Station to be set up by 2035, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) informed on Tuesday. As part of the Gaganyaan mission, the first demonstration flight of the Crew Escape System Test Vehicle is scheduled for October 21.

These conclusions came after a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to assess the progress of India’s Gaganyaan mission.

“The Department of Space presented a comprehensive overview of the Gaganyaan Mission, including various technologies developed so far such as human-rated launch vehicles and system qualification. It was noted that around 20 major tests, including 3 uncrewed missions of the Human Rated Launch Vehicle (HLVM3) are planned. First demonstration flight of the Crew Escape System Test Vehicle is scheduled on 21 October. The meeting evaluated the mission’s readiness, affirming its launch in 2025.” PMO said.

The PMO statement said that the Prime Minister has directed that India should “now aim for new and ambitious goals, including setting up ‘Bharatiya Antariksha Station’ (Indian Space Station) by 2035 and sending the first Indian to the Moon by 2040.”

To realize this vision, the Department of Space will develop a roadmap for Moon exploration, PMO said, adding that this will encompass a series of Chandrayaan missions, the development of a Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV), construction of a new launch pad, setting up human-centric Laboratories and associated technologies.

Further, the PMO statement said that PM Modi has also called upon Indian scientists to work towards interplanetary missions that would include a “Venus Orbiter Mission and a Mars Lander”.

On Gaganyaan’s first test flight, ISRO also said in an X post that the test is scheduled for October 21, at 8 am from the First launchpad at SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota.

“It will be a short-duration mission and the visibility from the Launch View Gallery (LVG) will be limited,” ISRO said, adding that registration for students and public to witness the launch from Sriharikota will commence from 6 pm today.