Space station are national projects, ISRO should involve private sector too | The Indian Express

Space station are national projects, ISRO should involve private sector too | The Indian Express

Written by Ajey Lele |Updated: June 18, 2019 10:49:01 am

Ajay Lele, a research fellow at IDSA, Delhi, is author of 'Mission Mars: India’s Quest for the Red Planet’

Space station are national projects, ISRO should involve private sector too

ISRO should invite private sector to join in building the proposed space station.

ISRO has mentioned it would start planning for the station only after the successful completion of a manned space flight, slated for 2022.

Last week, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) head K Sivan spoke about India building its own space station by the end of the next decade. The announcement came as a surprise, but ISRO seems to have been working on this project for some time. The first indication came in 2017 when Rs 10 crore was budgeted for an orbital rendezvous and docking experiment between two satellites. Docking expertise is essential when two separate free-flying units in space are required to physically link with each other. This technique is important to link the space shuttle with the space station. The second indication was when the human space flight mission (2021/22) was announced in August 2018. This suggested that India was preparing to undertake microgravity experimentation.