Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman awarded approximately ₹12,544 crore to the Department of Space on Wednesday, as India planned a human spaceflight, Gaganyaan, for next year, with the goal of exploring the moon and neighbouring planets.
The allocation is almost 8% less than the Budget Estimate of ₹13,700 crore for 2022-23, which has been reduced to ₹10,530.04 crore in the Revised Estimate.
The majority of the budget – ₹11,669.41 crore – has gone to central sector programmes or projects like as the human spaceflight centre and other departments dealing with launch vehicle and satellite projects, including developmental and operational activities.
The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-Space), the government’s one-stop shop for dealing with the private sector, received a ₹95 crore allocation, up from ₹21 crore in the Revised Estimate.
A major amount of the budget, ₹53 crore, has been set out for INSPACe capital expenditure.
The Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, which conducts fundamental research in numerous fields of experimental and theoretical physics and also produces instruments for science missions, has been allocated ₹408.69 crore, up from ₹411.11 crore in the previous year.
ISRO intends to use the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 to launch Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar mission, in July.
Gaganyaan, India’s first human space journey, has been delayed until the fourth quarter of 2024. It was originally scheduled to launch in December 2021. ISRO, on the other hand, intends to conduct unmanned flights for the project this year.
ISRO has also planned missions to the Sun, Venus, and Mars.
