INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS AND LUNAR AMBITIONS
India has already gained some human spaceflight experience through international cooperation.
Shukla became the first Indian to visit the International Space Station last year, serving as pilot on the commercial Axiom Mission 4 spaceflight.
Meanwhile, Gaganyaan itself involves international partners, including support for astronaut training, communications and recovery.
Other space-faring nations are also looking at opportunities to deepen their cooperation with India as its capabilities grow.
Ties between the United Kingdom and India, for instance, are strengthening, with both sides looking to deepen their cooperation, said Tony Forsythe, head of technology at the UK Space Agency.
He pointed to India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar exploration mission as evidence of its growing capabilities.
“It was groundbreaking. I don’t think we should underestimate how important that was,” he said. “With our ties, I think it will provide us with a really exciting and promising future collaboration together.”
Lunar exploration is another major focus of India’s space programme.
Chandrayaan-4, currently targeted for 2027, is designed to collect samples from the moon and return them to Earth.
Foreign companies are also eyeing opportunities arising from India’s growing ambitions.
Japan-based lunar exploration company ispace, for example, is among those looking at how it could support companies seeking to test technologies on and around the moon.
“There are so many possibilities to conduct technological demonstrations and acquire the track records and flight heritage related to the moon,” said Masayuki Urata, ispace’s regional manager of Asia-Pacific sales.
“We believe that our company may support such companies to accelerate in conducting such demonstrations.”
India’s ambitions go well beyond its first crewed orbital flight. It wants to launch the first module of its own space station by 2028 and land an Indian astronaut on the moon by 2040.
But observers said reaching those goals depends first on mastering human spaceflight: safely sending astronauts into orbit aboard India’s own launch system and bringing them home.
