Ahmedabad: India plans to land its astronauts on the Moon by 2040, former ISRO chief A S Kiran Kumar said. Kumar, who is currently the chairman of the management council of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), was speaking at the inauguration of the 5th Astronomical Society of India (ASI) Symposium. "Between now and 2040 there are a whole lot of missions which are going to go into space activities. So, 2040 is a plan where we want to land Indians on the Moon and bring them back safely. India is also working towards building a space station by 2040," he said.

In the immediate future, there will be a Chandrayaan follow-on mission, and work was underway with Japan for a lander and rover, he said. "We should be trying to look for some specific information in the South Polar region (of the Moon). It will only be the beginning of a whole lot of activities beyond that. India as a country is committed to doing space observation and then understanding the universe," Kumar said.