New Delhi: Speaking at the Russian Space Forum, a part of the first Russian Space Week being celebrated to commemorate the 65th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight in 1961, Director of the ISRO Propulsion Complex, Asir Packiaraj said, “Looking for lot of good cooperation with the Russian friends to have common subsystems for control, for powering, for communication, for tracking. With the rich experience of Russian colleagues, we would like to partner with them in the development of Indian Space Station, what we call BAS. In fact we are looking for partnerships, cooperation with various agencies of different spacefaring nations across the world, in Building our Space Station.”
🇮🇳🤝🇷🇺 ISRO Eyes Russia Cosmic Collaboration to Build India’s Own Bharatiya Antariksh Space Station
‘With the rich experience of Russian colleagues, we would like to partner with them in the development of the Indian space station, what we call it as BAS,’ Director of ISRO… pic.twitter.com/JYB1xIyGoi
— RT_India (@RT_India_news) April 10, 2026
ISRO plans to assemble the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS) in Earth orbit between 2028 and 2035. The ambitious Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme has been expanded to include the deployment of the first module of the orbital complex, designated as BAS-1 by 2028. The design of the BAS-1 module has been completed, with docking ports that are compatible with the International Space Station (ISS). As part of the Gaganyaan programme, the Gaganyaan Crew Module or spaceship will be executing autonomous dockings with both the ISS and the BAS-1 module. ISRO plans to deploy all the five modules and assemble BAS by 2035.
The future of orbital complexes
There are only two operational space stations in Earth orbit right now, the International Space Station (ISS) and China’s Tiangong Space Station. China is the only country in the world that currently operates its own space station, but that is about to change over the next decade with India planning to deploy BAS, and Russia planning to construct its own orbital complex, the Russian Orbital Station (ROS). USA is planning to transition to Commercial Low Orbit Destinations (CLDs) by a number of private companies, including Haven by Vast and the Orbital Reef by Blue Origin. NASA plans to deorbit the ageing ISS in the 2030s using a specially modified SpaceX Dragon.