185 - Indian Space Exploration | Koushik Vishwanathan | Aloke Kumar | Policy | Bharatvaarta

Bharatvaarta

The ISRO human space program began as the Indian Human spaceflight programme in 2007. This began the development of technology needed to launch crewed orbital spacecraft into low earth orbit. In 2018, the government approved a further $1.5bn for a 7 day crewed flight. Now known as the Gaganyaan programme, the programme aims to send two unmanned missions and one manned flight mission into low earth orbit by 2023. PM Modi launched the Indian Space Association (ISpA) in late 2021 as a way to contribute towards the accelerated development of India's space industry. Speaking on the occasion, the PM said that this undertaking will give the India space sector "new wings". It removes the restrictions on space access, previously only given to ISRO and a select few institutions. ISpA aspires to be the collective voice of the Indian Space industry. In the light of these advancements and India's new found enthusiasm for the space race, we decided to dive deep into Indian space exploration. To shed some light on this exhaustive subject, we invited guests Aloke Kumar and Koushik Vishwanathan. Aloke Kumar is the Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. He has also worked in many teams exploring applications of science to make space exploration easier. Koushik Vishwanathan is also an assistant professor at IISc, with an interest in advanced manufacturing and finishing processes. He has worked with Aloke on many of his projects regarding space exploration.