A 6‑BHK in Orbit: Why India’s Space Station Feels Inevitable

When Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla described the Bharatiya Antariksh Station as “like a 6‑BHK apartment that is packed with science and research,” the image landed with a clarity that only a good metaphor can provide — domestic, modular, useful and intended to grow India Today. He also reminded us that the station will be modular, starting with a core module and expanding — and that the first module will be launched soon. The phrase stuck with me because it ties together several threads I’ve followed and written about for years.

Why the modular “6‑BHK” metaphor matters

The International Space Station taught the world that a large orbiting laboratory is not a single monolith but an evolving ecosystem. The modular approach Shukla described means:

• incremental capability building (microgravity labs → life support → deep‑space testbeds),
• lower single‑launch risk, and
• the option to insert new technology in future modules.

This is not merely engineering pragmatism. It’s strategic: a national space station becomes a persistent presence — a platform for science, industry partnerships and training the next generation of mission systems engineers.

This feels familiar — because I wrote about it earlier

Years ago I wrote about India’s indigenous satellite capabilities and the broader consequences of owning our infrastructure. I argued that NavIC and related satcom capabilities would be central to transport, communications and national resilience (NavIC — the Navigator; see also my note on bringing NavIC into smartphones and consumer devices How to make smartphones even smarter). Those were not predictions for their own sake — they were arguments about how domestic space capabilities reconfigure industry and policy.

The core idea I want to emphasize is this — take a moment to notice that I had brought up these thoughts years ago. I had called for embedding national satellite services into everyday infrastructure and hinted at the downstream benefits: technology validation, commercialisation and strategic independence. Seeing ISRO move from mission demonstrations to a national space station is both validating and urgent: the ideas I raised then are not academic anymore — they are blueprints and opportunities in front of us.

How a BAS (Bharatiya Antariksh Station) connects to NavIC, satcom and industry

• Testbed for domestic life‑support and microgravity experiments: the first module’s emphasis on microgravity R&D makes sense — we must validate life‑support and materials science systems before deeper missions. This will directly accelerate Gaganyaan offshoots and lunar/martian mission readiness India Today.

• Commercial ecosystems: a modular space station opens commercial partnerships — payload hosting, biotech, materials testing and even manufacturing in microgravity. I urged ISRO to think not just as a mission agency but as an enabler for industry (see my note on ISRO’s commercial potential and the importance of bringing technologies to market New commercial arm to boost ISRO).

• Integration with terrestrial satellite products: I’ve long argued that NavIC and indigenous satcom should be embedded in smartphones, vehicles and IoT devices. A national space station strengthens the narrative: validation, visibility and incremental tech maturation accelerate industry uptake (NavIC — the Navigator; How to make smartphones even smarter).

Social and strategic dimensions I keep returning to

• Sovereignty of capability: owning a long‑duration habitat in low Earth orbit is a statement — scientific and strategic. It reduces dependency, builds domestic expertise and anchors allied collaborations.

• Workforce and industrial growth: the station will be a catalyst for suppliers, startups and skill pipelines — from life‑support and robotics to payload integration and data services.

• Inspiration and policy: tangible projects like BAS change public imagination. They make it easier to justify STEM investments and policy reforms that accelerate commercialization of space tech.

A brief, personal conclusion

Hearing that the first module will be launched soon brought back those earlier posts and proposals. I don’t mention them for credit — I mention them because pattern recognition matters. When you have an ecosystem of ideas — NavIC in phones, satcom messaging, ISRO’s commercialization — they don’t live in isolation. A space station ties many threads together into a practical roadmap.

There will be technical hurdles and governance questions — who gets payload priority, how we fund commercial slots, how we certify modules — but the modular 6‑BHK image is useful because it reminds us the station can and should be useful to ordinary citizens as much as to elite scientists.

We’re at a hinge point: the launch of a core module will be the start of something far more consequential than a headline. It will be the beginning of an ecosystem — scientific, industrial and civic — that could define India’s presence in space for decades.

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Regards,
Hemen Parekh