From Chandrayaan-3 to Gaganyaan: India's Historic Space Odyssey Timeline

National Space Day is observed every August 23 to mark Chandrayaan-3's soft landing near the Moon's south polar region on August 23, 2023. As of August 2026, I…

India Launches Its First Sounding Rocket From Thumba

A U.S.-supplied Nike-Apache sounding rocket lifted off from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station, India's first rocket launch of any kind, under Vikram Sarabha…

Aryabhata: India's First Satellite

India's first satellite, built entirely by ISRO and launched on a Soviet rocket, proved India could design and build a spacecraft — but not yet launch one independently.

SLV-3 Places Rohini Into Orbit — India's First Independent Launch

Led by project director A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, SLV-3 placed the Rohini satellite into orbit, making India the sixth nation to reach orbit on a rocket it built itself.

Chandrayaan-1 Begins India's Lunar Exploration Era

India's first mission beyond Earth orbit contributed, alongside NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument, to the international scientific case for water and hydroxyl on…

Mangalyaan Reaches Mars on the First Attempt

The Mars Orbiter Mission entered Mars orbit on its first attempt, making India the fourth agency to reach Mars and the first anywhere to succeed on a debut try, at an ap…

Chandrayaan-2: The Landing That Taught ISRO What to Fix

The orbiter succeeded and remains operational; the Vikram lander lost communication during final descent and crash-landed. ISRO's failure analysis identified specific gu…

Chandrayaan-3 Lands Near the Moon's South Polar Region

Vikram's autonomous, controlled soft landing near the Moon's south polar region proved the specific capability Chandrayaan-2 had failed to demonstrate. Pragyan operated…

Aditya-L1 Enters Halo Orbit at the Sun-Earth L1 Point

India's first solar observatory reached its halo orbit at the L1 point, roughly 1.5 million km from Earth, for continuous, uninterrupted solar observation. It remains op…

Gaganyaan's First Abort Test, TV-D1, Succeeds

The crew escape system's first flight test successfully separated a test crew module and recovered it by parachute in the Bay of Bengal — the only fully completed Gagany…

Gaganyaan's First Uncrewed Orbital Test, G1, Targeted for Late 2026

No Gaganyaan orbital flight, crewed or uncrewed, has launched as of August 2026. ISRO's chairman has targeted the uncrewed G1 flight, carrying the robot Vyommitra, for t…

Bharatiya Antariksh Station: First Module Targeted 2028, Full Station 2035

India's planned national space station has a five-module design finalised around December 2025. ISRO targets the first module, BAS-1, for 2028 and a fully assembled stat…