India planning to launch own space station, says ISRO chief

India is planning an ambitious project to launch its own space station, ISRO chief K Sivan said on Thursday. The space station project will be an extension of the Gaganyaan programme. “We are planning to have a separate space station. We will not be a part of International Space Startion. Our space station is going to be very small. We will be launching a small module and that will be used for carrying out microgravity experiments,” K Sivan said [caption id="attachment_306407" align="aligncenter" width="700"] India planning to launch own space station, says ISRO chief[/caption] The proposal will be sent to the government for approval after the first Gaganyaan mission. The Indian Space Research Organisation chief said the weight of the space station is likely to be 20 tonnes. A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting crew members, designed to remain in space for an extended period of time and for other spacecraft to dock. ISRO is looking at 5 to 7 years time frame for execution of the programme. The International Space Station (ISS) is the only fully functioning space station in Earth’s lower orbit at present. The ISS is a partnership between European countries represented by European Space Agency, the United States (NASA), Japan (JAXA), Canada (CSA) and Russia (Roscosmos). It is the world’s largest international cooperative programme in science and technology. China also plans to build a space station of its own. Addressing a joint press conference with Sivan, Union Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space, Jitendra Singh said that ISRO has resolved to send its first human mission into space in 2022. On Wednesday, the Indian Space Research Organisation had announced that it will launch Chandrayaan-2, its second mission to the moon, on July 15.