India's Space Station Has Approval for One of Its Five Modules, an Estimated Cost of ₹1,763 Crore and a Launch Target of 2028

The Union Cabinet approved the first module of India’s space station, BAS-1 of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station, on 18 September 2024. A written reply in the Lok Sabha on 25 March 2026 puts the estimated cost of developing and launching that module at ₹1,763 crore over 2025 to 2028 (a crore is ten million), and says the current approval is limited to that one module.

The government plans the station in five modules and targets 2035 for having it operational. The replies opened for this article contain no approval for the other four.

What the Cabinet approved on 18 September 2024

The decision did not create a new programme. It widened Gaganyaan, India’s crewed spaceflight programme approved in December 2018 and covered in our Gaganyaan piece. The Cabinet cleared development of BAS-1 and missions to demonstrate and validate technologies for building and operating a station. It also added one uncrewed Gaganyaan mission and extra hardware for the flights already planned.

The programme is now eight missions, which the Cabinet text says are to be completed by December 2028 by launching BAS-1. The same text names the long-range goals: an operational station by 2035 and an Indian crewed lunar mission by 2040.

The money is where accounts often go wrong. The Cabinet text gives a net additional funding of ₹11,170 crore, which raised the total for the revised Gaganyaan Programme to ₹20,193 crore. That total pays for all eight missions. It is neither the price of the station nor the extra money.

Later government papers date the approval differently. A reply of 23 July 2025 refers to the revision of the programme on 9 October 2024, and one of 30 July 2026 says October 2024, while replies of 11 February, 25 March and 5 August 2026 say September 2024. This article uses 18 September, the date on the Cabinet release.

Where the ₹1,763 crore comes from

The 25 March 2026 reply is the one government document found that prices the first module by itself: ₹1,763 crore for development and launch over four years. A reply of 11 February 2026 says the budget for the precursor missions and for BAS-1 sits inside the revised Gaganyaan sum of ₹20,193 crore. Neither reply splits the rest of that sum among the other missions.

Five modules, one of them in design

ISRO has worked out the configuration of five modules, and a National Level Review Committee has reviewed it, according to the replies of 11 February and 25 March 2026. In the Rajya Sabha on 30 July 2026 the government said the baseline design review and system engineering of BAS-01 were complete, 31 baseline design documents had been released and an expert committee had finished its review. Design of the subsystems had begun.

The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre has also invited Indian industry, through an Expression of Interest, to build the module’s structure, the March reply says. Where private firms fit in Indian space is covered in our piece on the NewSpace start-ups.

No government reply opened gives the module’s size or mass. Press reports of a model that ISRO showed at Bharat Mandapam in Delhi on 22 August 2025 give 3.8 metres by 8 metres, an expected mass of about 10 tonnes and an orbit about 450 km up. No ISRO document opened for this article states those figures.

The 25 March reply lists the technology goals: rendezvous and docking, robotics, in-orbit refuelling, crew quarters, an intra-vehicular suit and racks for microgravity experiments. The research areas it names are life sciences, pharmaceuticals, materials science and manufacturing. On 29 January 2026 ISRO invited Indian researchers to propose microgravity experiments by 28 February, and said selected ones may later be considered for flight opportunities, including on the station.

The dates and who has given them

For BAS-1 the Cabinet text implies December 2028, since launching it completes the eight missions. On 23 August 2025, at National Space Day in Delhi, ISRO chairman V. Narayanan said the station would exist by 2035 and its first module would be lifted off by 2028, as the Statesman reported. The 30 July 2026 reply also gives 2028 for BAS-01.

The two August 2026 replies in Parliament give only the later date. The Lok Sabha reply of 5 August and the Rajya Sabha release of 6 August say operationalisation is targeted by 2035, with no launch year for BAS-01. Narayanan said at National Space Day in Ahmedabad on 23 August 2026: “The first module has already been approved, and we aim to establish the space station by 2035.” ISRO’s own statement of 6 September 2026 also says 2035.

The most recent module date found comes from Narayanan Appu, director of the ISRO Propulsion Complex at Mahendragiri. He told reporters in Coimbatore on 5 October 2026 that the first module is expected to launch by the end of 2028, the Times of India reported. The same report says work on the first two modules is progressing, which the government replies do not say; they describe approval and design for the first only.

The eight missions and the order they fly in

A reply of 23 July 2025 lists the eight. Gaganyaan has three uncrewed missions and one crewed. The BAS precursors are one crewed mission, an International Space Station docking mission, the BAS-1 mission and a BAS-1 docking mission.

The Cabinet text expected four Gaganyaan missions by 2026. The 5 August 2026 reply targets the first uncrewed flight, carrying the half-humanoid robot Vyommitra, for the fourth quarter of 2026, with two more uncrewed flights and the first crewed flight “by 2027”. On 11 September 2026 Narayanan gave the sequence as the first uncrewed flight at the end of December, the next two at six-month intervals, and humans in December 2027 or early 2028. Appu’s date for human spaceflight on 5 October was mid-2028. The dated history is in the Gaganyaan piece. The replies opened give no dates for the four BAS precursor missions.

What SpaDeX showed and what it did not

ISRO’s SpaDeX page calls in-space docking essential for building and operating the station. SpaDeX docked two satellites of about 220 kg each on 16 January 2025, and the full account is in our SpaDeX article.

The Department of Space told the Rajya Sabha on 23 March 2026 that proving the technology in orbit paves the way for docking a Gaganyaan module to a station such as BAS. The same reply says ISRO is studying SPADEX-3, which would dock two pressurised modules in a circular orbit with the Bharatiya Docking System as a precursor for the station. It gives no launch date.

The 30 July 2026 reply adds that docking systems have been worked out, electrical and mechanical interfaces included, and that a concept demonstration model of a refuelling mechanism has been successfully demonstrated.

What is not approved or not yet proven

The four modules after BAS-1 have no sanction in the replies opened. On 30 July 2026 the government described its current work as the technological foundation for designing and building them.

Some of the human-spaceflight hardware still comes from abroad. The same reply says the flight suit, view port and crew seat for Gaganyaan are sourced from external parties, and that the government has approved developing them in India, with prototype hardware in progress. The 5 August reply says a memorandum with Russia’s Roscosmos has led to contracts for delivery of the crew seat, viewport and flight suits. The 11 February reply says there are no specific technical collaboration agreements with other space agencies or organisations for the station. None of the sources opened says who will build the BAS-1 structure.

The first uncrewed Gaganyaan flight, G1, has not launched. The Times of India report of 5 October 2026 quotes Appu saying the first of three uncrewed test flights is planned by the end of this year.