Deep space exploration next, prepare for it: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday challenged India’s space scientists to prepare for deep space exploration missions, declaring that the nation must venture beyond the Moon and Mars to unlock cosmic secrets that could benefit humanity's future.

- HT Correspondent

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chairman V Narayanan echoed this ambitious vision, declaring that India now “rubs shoulders” with developed nations in space technology —a remarkable transformation for a country that was “60 years behind the advanced spacefaring nations.”

Speaking at the National Space Day event, Narayanan hailed astronaut Shubhanshu ‘Shukla’s successful International Space Station (ISS) mission as a major achievement while crediting fellow astronauts Prashanth Nair, Angad Prathap, and Ajit Krishnan — currently training with Shukla for Gaganyaan, India’s maiden human space flight mission — for their contributions.

“One of the major achievements we have is sending our own Gaganyatri to the ISS. It was the idea of the Prime Minister to send one of the Gaganyatris to ISS before sending them through our rocket,” Narayanan said, emphasising that all four astronauts were “equal and on par.