India

ISRO •

Gaganyaan is the Government of India's flagship human spaceflight programme, executed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with regulatory oversight from the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) [1][7]. The architecture combines a 5.3-tonne orbital module (a crew module mated to a service module) launched by a human-rated variant of the LVM3 vehicle — formerly the GSLV Mk III — using the indigenous S200 solid boosters, the L110 liquid core stage burning UDMH/N2O4 via twin Vikas engines, and the cryogenic C25 stage powered by the CE-20 engine [2]. The crew escape system was first demonstrated on the TV-D1 in-flight abort test from Sriharikota on October 21, 2023, with the TV-D2 follow-on test expected to qualify a higher-altitude abort regime before the first uncrewed orbital flight (G1) [5][8]. In February 2024 Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly named the four IAF test-pilot astronaut-designates — Group Captain Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Angad Pratap, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla — completing a Russian-led basic training rotation at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre before continuing systems-specific training in Bengaluru [6]. The Axiom-4 commercial mission to the International Space Station, on which Group Captain Shukla flew as a designated pilot in mid-2025, provided ISRO's first operational human-spaceflight experience and de-risked life-support, EVA-suit donning and on-orbit health protocols ahead of the crewed Gaganyaan flight [9]. Beyond the initial three-day mission, the Union Cabinet in September 2024 approved the Bharatiya Antariksha Station (BAS) — a five-module Indian space station with the first module targeted by 2028 and full configuration by approximately 2035 — alongside an expanded Gaganyaan envelope to support eight follow-on crewed missions through 2035 [4][7].

ISRO •

The Chandrayaan programme is the Indian Space Research Organisation's flagship lunar exploration series, executed under the Department of Space and increasingly opened to private contractors under the IN-SPACe regulatory framework [1][8]. Chandrayaan-1, launched on PSLV-C11 on October 22, 2008, was India's first deep-space mission; it carried 11 instruments (including NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, M3, and ISRO's Moon Impact Probe) and returned spectral data that — when published in Science in September 2009 — provided the first widely accepted evidence for hydroxyl and water molecules on the sunlit lunar surface [2][3]. Chandrayaan-2, launched on GSLV Mk III in July 2019, deployed an orbiter (still operational and returning high-resolution imagery and CLASS X-ray spectrometer data as of 2026) plus the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover; Vikram lost attitude control during the final descent and crash-landed on September 7, 2019, approximately 2.1 km from the targeted Manzinus crater area [4][9]. Chandrayaan-3, launched on LVM3-M4 from Sriharikota on July 14, 2023 and soft-landed on August 23, 2023 at 6:04 PM IST, made India the fourth nation to achieve a controlled lunar soft landing and the first to land near the lunar south pole — the landing site was officially named Shiv Shakti Point by the Government of India [5]. The mission's total approved cost of Rs 615 crore (~$75M) made it one of the cheapest soft-lunar landers ever flown; the Pragyan rover operated for one lunar day (~14 Earth days) and the LIBS / APXS payloads confirmed in-situ detection of sulphur near the south pole [5][6]. Chandrayaan-4, approved by the Union Cabinet on September 18, 2024 at an outlay of Rs 2,104.06 crore, is a two-launch sample-return mission targeting the south-polar region with a target return-to-Earth in 2027-2028 [7]. The Lunar Polar Exploration mission (LUPEX) — jointly executed with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), with JAXA providing the H3 launcher and rover and ISRO providing the lander — targets in-situ characterisation of polar water ice and is currently scheduled for the late-2020s window [10].

NASA + ISRO •

NISAR — the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar mission — is a flagship bilateral Earth-observation satellite jointly developed under a 2014 NASA/ISRO partnership agreement, then formally booked at $1.5 billion total life-cycle cost across the two agencies' contributions [1][2][3]. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory provides the L-band synthetic aperture radar (24 cm wavelength), the 12-metre deployable mesh reflector (built by L3Harris Technologies, formerly Harris Corporation, with strong heritage from the Mobile Satellite Ventures and TerreStar programs), a high-rate Ka-band telecom subsystem, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and a payload data subsystem [3][7]. ISRO's U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) in Bengaluru provides the satellite bus, the S-band synthetic aperture radar (10 cm wavelength), the GSLV Mk II launch vehicle, and on-orbit operations from the Indian Space Operations Centre [4]. Radar payload integration (L-band + S-band) occurred at JPL in 2023, and final observatory integration was performed at the ISRO Satellite Integration & Test Establishment (ISITE) in Bengaluru in 2024 [4][5]. After multiple slips driven principally by a 2024 mesh-reflector thermal-deformation concern requiring re-coating, NISAR launched on GSLV-F16 (a GSLV Mk II variant designated GSLV-F16) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre Sriharikota on July 30, 2025 at 17:40 IST — the GSLV's first Sun-synchronous orbit mission [6][8]. Following ~90 days of commissioning, science observations began in late October 2025; mission designers anticipate a 3-year nominal observation phase covering the entire Earth land and ice surface every 12 days at sub-centimetre interferometric precision, supporting climate-change monitoring, agricultural yield estimation, deformation tracking ahead of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, sea-ice mass-balance estimation, and aboveground biomass quantification for forest carbon accounting [1][3]. Data are delivered to NASA's EOSDIS DAACs and ISRO's Bhuvan platform within hours, with a free-and-open data policy mandated by both agencies [1].

ISRO •

Aditya-L1 is the Indian Space Research Organisation's first space-based observatory dedicated to studying the Sun, executed by the U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) and the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) as the lead VELC payload integrator [1]. The spacecraft was launched aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in its XL configuration (PSLV-C57) from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota at 11:50 IST on September 2, 2023 [2]. After four Earth-bound manoeuvres and a Trans-Lagrangian Point Insertion burn on September 18, 2023, the spacecraft completed a 110-day cruise and was successfully inserted into its target halo orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L1 — approximately 1.5 million km from Earth — at 16:00 IST on January 6, 2024 [2][5]. The halo orbit provides an uninterrupted view of the Sun without eclipses or occultations, enabling continuous observations of the photosphere, chromosphere and corona. Aditya-L1 carries seven instruments: the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT), the Aditya Solar wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX), the Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya (PAPA), the Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS), the High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS), and the Advanced Tri-axial High Resolution Digital Magnetometer [1][3]. VELC — the largest and primary scientific payload, developed by IIA Bengaluru — observes the solar corona between 1.05 and 3 solar radii at four emission lines including the Fe XIV 5303 Å line, enabling continuous spectroscopic coronal observations not previously available from any single instrument [3]. The mission's total approved cost of approximately Rs 400 crore (~$48M, FY2019 sanction) reflects an extension of ISRO's track record of low-cost interplanetary and deep-space missions; the FY2019 Cabinet sanction was the original authorisation, with subsequent budget supplements absorbed within the Department of Space science envelope [4][6]. As of 2026 the spacecraft continues nominal operations and is delivering coordinated multi-wavelength observations alongside NASA's Parker Solar Probe and ESA's Solar Orbiter, with bulk Level-1 data products released through ISRO's Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC) PRADAN portal [7].

JAXA + ISRO •

The Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX, 月極域探査機; also publicly referenced as Chandrayaan-5 in ISRO planning) is a joint mission between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), formally agreed in 2017 and progressively de-scoped, re-baselined and reaffirmed across multiple JAXA-ISRO joint working group meetings through 2024-2026 [1][2]. Under the current architecture, JAXA leads the integrated mission and provides the H3 launch vehicle (operating from Tanegashima Space Center) plus the rover element — a ~350 kg pressurised, six-wheeled mobile platform with a ~100-day surface-life design and a drilling system capable of obtaining sub-surface samples down to ~1.5 m [3][4]. ISRO provides the lander platform — leveraging the Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lineage with extensions for the heavier rover payload and the additional polar-thermal-survival requirements — and carries Indian payloads including a near-infrared spectrometer and a permanently-shadowed-region thermal imager [2][4]. The combined stack targets the southern polar region (candidate landing zones near Shackleton, Haworth and Faustini craters) and will deploy the rover into permanently shadowed crater interiors for the first sustained mobile science campaign in lunar PSRs — a capability complementary to NASA's cancelled VIPER and to CNSA's Chang'e 7 'mini flying detector' [3][7]. JAXA's published mission cost envelope is approximately ¥40 billion (~$270M) on the Japanese side [6], while the Indian Cabinet's specific LUPEX cost-share remains under negotiation as of mid-2026 and has not been formally disclosed at the line-item level beyond the broader Department of Space FY2025-26 envelope of Rs 13,416 crore (~$1.6B) [9]. Launch is currently targeted no earlier than 2026-2027, with multiple JAXA / ISRO public statements indicating slip risk into 2028 [2][8]. LUPEX builds on Japan's SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) success in January 2024 — which made Japan the fifth nation to soft-land on the Moon — and the operational Chandrayaan-2 orbiter providing south-polar terrain reconnaissance [5].

ISRO • 2008–ongoing

India's lunar exploration program. Chandrayaan-3 achieved a historic soft landing at the lunar south pole on Aug 23, 2023, making India the 4th country to land on the Moon and the first to land near the south pole. The Pragyan rover operated for 14 days analyzing lunar soil composition. Chandrayaan-4 is a sample return mission approved by the Indian government.

ISRO • 2018–2026

India's first crewed spaceflight program. Will make India the 4th country to independently send humans to space. Uses the GSLV Mk III (LVM3) rocket and a 3-crew orbital module. Multiple uncrewed test flights completed including abort test and TV-D2 crew escape demonstration. First crewed mission targeted for late 2026.

ISRO • 2023–2028+

India's first dedicated solar observation mission. Launched Sep 2, 2023, and successfully inserted into a halo orbit around Sun-Earth L1 point on Jan 6, 2024. Carries 7 payloads studying the solar corona, photosphere, chromosphere, and solar wind. Providing continuous solar observation without eclipses.

JAXA / ISRO • 2028–2029

Joint Japan-India lunar rover mission to the Moon's south pole. JAXA provides the rover and ISRO provides the lander. The rover will carry a drill capable of penetrating 1.5 meters below the surface to confirm the presence of water ice and characterize its distribution. Toyota is developing the rover's driving technology.

NASA / ISRO • 2025–2028

Joint NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite that will map the entire globe every 12 days using dual-frequency radar. Will track changes in Earth's ice sheets, ecosystems, sea level, natural hazards, and groundwater with unprecedented precision. One of the most capable Earth observation satellites ever built.