Coming 40 years after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian citizen to enter space, Shukla’s venture is not novel, but certainly a precursor to India’s further space explorations.
Published Jun 07, 2025 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Jun 07, 2025 | 8:00 AM
Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla is set to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, along with three international crewmates as part of the Axiom-4 Mission to the ISS on 10 June. (Supplied)
Synopsis: With the International Space Station set to descend into the Pacific by 2030 and about 8-10 trips left, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s venture is a clear signal to India to quicken not only its government-owned space station, but to galvanize India’s private space stations for reasons of national interest, affordability and continuous technological evolution.
Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s trip to the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, 10 June, from Florida, the first by an Indian citizen to the station, is a precedent for further Indian space trips.
The ISS, set to retire by 2030, is likely to receive around eight more trips from 2026. If India has to do some inexpensive experiments at the ISS, its best option is to bargain for more rides among the eight left. However, this may be challenging, as the selection and training of astronauts for each trip typically take around two years or more. Moreover, the US, Europe, and a few other countries are planning to make more trips to the ISS within the window.
Additionally, many private companies are scrambling to make it to ISS before it’s brought down into the Pacific Ocean.
ISRO is aware of the developments and has already initiated a partnership with US-based Voyager Technologies, which is collaborating with Airbus to build a commercial, private space station by 2028, known as Starlab. ISRO is also hastening the construction of its space station, which will take seven more years.
However, it cannot stop space experiments and explorations in the meantime. It means that ISRO will have to undertake missions to private space stations. This may prove more expensive compared to trips to ISS, considering that such space stations will be built, owned, and run by private ventures, which would levy a fee to sustain such operations.
The ISS would have proved less expensive, given that national governments have set up the venture. That’s why it makes sense for India to expedite the construction of its space station, besides encouraging Indian private space companies to set up space stations. It would allow ISRO not only to have its space station, but also Indian-built, owned and operated stations, which may make India’s space ventures affordable.
The ISS is being decommissioned primarily due to its age, technological obsolescence, and the growing cost of its operation. The station’s infrastructure is aging, with much of the equipment now outdated and requiring costly maintenance.
The ISS was originally designed for 15 years, and it has exceeded the expected operational time. (Supplied)
Additionally, there are concerns about the long-term safety of the station due to structural degradation and potential damage from space debris. Finally, the cost of maintaining and operating the ISS, which is estimated to be billions of dollars annually, is a significant factor in the decision to retire it.
The ISS was originally designed for 15 years, and it has exceeded the expected operational time. The station’s components are beginning to show signs of wear and tear, with some modules experiencing structural cracks and air leaks.
Many of the systems and technologies on the ISS are from the 1990s and 2000s and are no longer considered state-of-the-art. This makes it difficult to upgrade and maintain, and some of the technology is not compatible with future space exploration plans.
Moreover, the ISS, being a massive and complex structure, requires constant maintenance and support to keep it functional. The annual cost of operating the station is estimated to be around $4 billion. Additionally, the ISS is exposed to the harsh environment of space, including micrometeoroids and space debris. These threats can damage the station’s structure and put the crew at risk.
There is also the changing nature of priorities. As space exploration goals evolve, there is a growing focus on new missions, such as the Artemis programme and future lunar and Mars missions. The ISS is seen as a relatively short-term project that is not as strategic as these future endeavors.
India and ISRO will have to build a space station that will be technologically updated and will last long enough. The country should also encourage private industry to set up stations to cut costs of space ventures and ultimately serve its national interest through its apparatuses, unless commercial space stations set up by other countries keep the doors open for affordable space work.
Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla (second, left) with other spacefarers at Axiom, Houston. (Credit: Axiom Space)
The latter may seem unlikely given the heavy costs involved in building and maintaining such structures. This will require quick, intense, and focused work from ISRO and the Indian private sector, which has begun in some sense. The Gaganyaan Mission is evidence of India’s understanding that it will have to build, own, and operate its capabilities, given that technology transfers are always tricky.
Gaganyaan demonstrated India’s human space flight capability by sending a manned mission of two or three astronauts to an orbit of 400 km above Earth for three days and bringing them safely back to Earth. This is set for 2027.
India’s Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS) initiative has also taken off and is set to be ready by 2035. The first module is expected to be launched in 2028 on an LVM3 launch vehicle, with the remaining modules to be launched by 2035 on the Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV).
The BAS will be stationed 400 km above Earth, where astronauts could stay for 3-6 months. Of course, India is way behind China, which is already conducting advanced experiments on its space station set up some time back, but India is getting there. When completed, only three to five countries would have their space lab facility.
Technological inadequacies are persistent, but ISRO is pushing forward, even if a bit slowly. Given its history of learning quickly from failures and developing new technologies, which is an excruciating process, ISRO will get there.
Given that the exact number of astronaut trips to the ISS before retirement is not a single, fixed number, but rather a range of possibilities based on current plans, India must grab perhaps two more opportunities to learn what it can from the ISS and adopt and improvise on the same on other stations, private and is own.
The ISS is now three decades into science, research, and exploration, and the first crew arrived at the station in 2000. After 2030, NASA will be working with privately owned and operated space stations in low Earth orbit. It has already initiated the same, and guidance and technology transfer are underway.
India should have jumped into some sort of significant contribution to the same, but perhaps national priority and resource crunch could have been constraints. But 25 years later, India plans to conduct two crewed space flights (by 2028) with an allocation of $2.32 billion from an initial outlay of $1.1 billion after the scope of the programme was expanded.
Group Captain Shukla’s trip is also something to cheer about, as we could gain some learnings to extrapolate onto our missions. Coming 40 years after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian citizen to enter space, Shukla’s venture is not novel, but certainly a precursor to India’s further space explorations.
It will be a landmark for the country when its space station is ready in 2035 and its first citizen touches the moon in 2040. This is a question of capability, and there is evidence to show India can grasp, borrow, and evolve its own, even if it is taking time.
(Views are personal. Edited by Majnu Babu).
