Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS)

BAS is India’s planned space station. Three official texts tell us what it is, how big it will be and what it will cost.

1. What is a space station, and why does India want one?

A space station is a base that circles the Earth, and India wants one to keep crews in space for months. A short flight cannot offer this.

India calls BAS a platform in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). That is the region close to the Earth where most crewed flights travel. The platform will allow medium and long human spaceflight missions. It will do research in microgravity, which means near-weightless conditions.

A station turns single flights into a lasting human presence in space.

2. How many modules will BAS have, and when?

BAS will have five modules, and the target year is 2035. The Department of Space calls it India’s first indigenous space station. Indigenous means made in India.

Each module is a sealed section of the station. Crews join the sections together in orbit. The first module is called BAS-01. The government has approved it. It is targeted for launch by 2028.

The remaining four modules follow later. ISRO plans to complete the station by 2035.

3. How did the Cabinet fund BAS?

The Union Cabinet approved ₹20,193 crore in September 2024. The money covers eight missions. BAS shares this budget with the Gaganyaan programme.

Gaganyaan is India’s own crewed spaceflight mission. The Cabinet widened its scope so it could also cover early BAS work. That is why one budget serves both.

The Prime Minister linked the decision to two goals. One is a self-sustained space station by 2035. The other is a crewed lunar mission by 2040.

ISRO builds BAS step by step. It first proves the crew technology, then the station parts.

4. Why does BAS depend on Gaganyaan?

BAS needs the same crew technology that Gaganyaan builds. Gaganyaan must show that India can carry people to orbit and bring them home safely.

Three parts matter most. The Human Rated Launch Vehicle (HLVM3) lifts the crew. The orbital module is the spacecraft that carries them. The Crew Escape System can pull the crew away if a launch fails.

The Lok Sabha reply of 5 August 2026 lists the progress. Ground testing of all HLVM3 propulsion stages and structures is complete. The first uncrewed experimental mission is targeted for the last quarter of 2026. The first crewed mission is targeted by 2027.

5. How far has the design of BAS-01 gone?

The first design review is complete. The Rajya Sabha reply of 30 July 2026 says the Baseline Design Review and System Engineering of BAS-01 are done. ISRO has released 31 baseline design documents.

An expert committee has also reviewed the design. Design of the subsystems has now begun. A subsystem is one working part of the module, such as power or life support.

So BAS-01 has moved from paper plans to detailed design.

6. Which technologies must India prove before BAS flies?

India must prove docking, refuelling and crew-safety gear. Docking means joining two spacecraft in orbit. A station needs it because modules and visiting ships must link up.

ISRO says the docking systems are worked out, with their electrical and mechanical links. A concept model of a refuelling mechanism has been shown to work.

Other critical items are the flight suit, the view port and the crew seat. For Gaganyaan these came from outside sources. The government has now approved making them in India.

7. Why build a station in modules?

A station is too big to launch in one piece. So engineers build it from modules. Each module goes up on its own rocket and joins the earlier ones in orbit.

The International Space Station (ISS) shows how this works. Its large modules and other pieces went up on 42 assembly flights. BAS follows the same broad idea with five modules.

The modular plan has one more gain. ISRO can learn from BAS-01 before it builds the next four.

The ISS is the best-known station. It shows both the gains and the limits of a shared project.

8. What is the International Space Station?

The ISS is a joint station run by five space agencies. They come from the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada. Its first element, Zarya, launched in 1998.

It is about 109 metres end to end. NASA says it has hosted nearly 3,000 research investigations. Researchers from more than 108 countries took part.

BAS is different in one key way. It will be India’s own station, run by ISRO.

9. How does cooperation help India's crew programme?

Partner agencies give India support, training and parts. The Lok Sabha reply of 5 August 2026 names them. The European Space Agency (ESA) supports network operations for Gaganyaan.

The Australian Space Agency helps with crew and crew-module recovery. The French space agency, the Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), trained ISRO’s flight surgeons. Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, signed a pact for joint human spaceflight work.

That pact led to contracts for a crew seat, a viewport and flight suits. It also trained the first batch of Indian astronauts at the Gagarin training centre.

10. Why does India still build its own parts?

Some key parts came from outside for the first Gaganyaan flights. The Rajya Sabha reply names the flight suit, view port and crew seat. Relying on others for such items is a risk.

So the government has approved making these items in India. Proto hardware is now being designed and built. India wants to control the full chain for human spaceflight.

BAS is more than a prestige project. It gives India a research lab in orbit and a base of skills.

11. What science can a station support?

A station gives scientists weeks and months of microgravity. Microgravity means near-weightless conditions. Short flights give far less time for such work.

The Department of Space says BAS will support cutting-edge research and technology work in microgravity. The work is aimed at national priorities and social uses.

NASA’s ISS shows the scale. It is a microgravity laboratory hosting science from many fields.

12. How does BAS build self-reliance?

BAS-01 builds the skills for the other four modules. The Rajya Sabha reply says these steps lay the technology base for the remaining four modules.

The reply adds two gains. India gains self-reliance in critical human spaceflight technology. It also gains the high-tech manufacturing needed for such flights.

So each part made in India cuts future dependence. That also helps Indian industry grow.

13. What is the timeline from now to 2040?

The targets run in order, from late 2026 to a crewed Moon mission by 2040. The first uncrewed Gaganyaan mission is targeted for the last quarter of 2026. It will carry the Vyommitra half-humanoid robot. Two more uncrewed flights and the first crewed flight are targeted by 2027.

BAS-01 is targeted for 2028. The full five-module station is targeted for 2035. The Prime Minister has also named a crewed lunar mission by 2040.

Each step depends on the one before it.

UPSC asked about India’s own space station in the Mains of 2019. The question asked for the plan and the benefit.

14. What did UPSC Mains 2019 ask, and how do you answer it?

The question came in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services Mains 2019, General Studies Paper III, as Q6. It carried 10 marks and a 150-word limit.

Answer in two blocks. First give the plan. Say BAS has five modules, BAS-01 comes first, and the target is 2035. Mention that it builds on Gaganyaan technology. Then give the benefit. Cover microgravity research, self-reliance in crew technology and room for future partnerships.

Do not mix BAS up with the ISS or with China’s Tiangong. BAS is India’s own station.