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