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The third space station to be built by India

(Credits : Scientific American)

New Delhi – Bharat is going to build its own space station. After the International Space Station and China’s ‘Tiangong Space Station’, the third space station will be built by India. After its ‘Gaganyaan’ mission, India will start work on the space station. The ‘Gaganyaan’ mission envisages sending a crew to the moon.

The space station to be built by India will weigh 20 tonnes, as against the International Space Station weighing 450 tonnes and China’s space station weighing 80 tonnes. India’s space station will be able to accommodate 4–5 astronauts and will maintain an orbit approximately 400 kms above the Earth’s orbit, which is also known as Lower Earth Orbit.

The announcement of India’s space station was made in 2019 by ISRO’s Chairman K Sivan. After the ‘Gaganyaan’ mission, India will complete its space station mission by 2030.

The USA will train India’s astronauts before India builds the space station, as per an agreement entered into between NASA and ISRO. In 2024, two astronauts from India can visit the International Space Station; prior to this, they will be trained at ‘Johnson Space Centre’ in Houston.

What is a space station ?

A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit; so, scientists can stay on this spacecraft and conduct research. It revolves in the Earth’s orbit. One astronaut can stay there for six months. Another crew is sent to the spacecraft as the crew sent earlier returns. There are at least seven astronauts on the International Space Station, but sometimes there can be more than seven astronauts, too. The International Space Station has been jointly built by 15 countries, mainly including NASA of the USA, the European Space Agency, Canada’s Space Agency, Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Russia’s ROSCOSMOS.     

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