The Union Cabinet has officially approved the Chandrayaan-4 mission aimed at retrieving soil and rock samples from the Moon. This milestone decision cements India’s position as a formidable global leader in advanced deep-space exploration.

📌 Key Highlights

• 👉 Total budget outlay sanctioned at ₹2,104 crore for multi-launch lunar sample return.
• 👉 Mission involves complex docking, sample transfer, and safe re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
• 👉 Targeted launch timeline set for 2028 using heavy-lift LVM3 and PSLV rockets.

New Delhi — The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has formally sanctioned India’s ambitious Chandrayaan-4 lunar sample return mission. Building upon the resounding success of Chandrayaan-3’s soft landing near the lunar south pole in 2023, this next-generation endeavor aims to demonstrate advanced technologies required to collect lunar regolith and safely transport it back to Earth for comprehensive scientific analysis.

The mission architecture represents ISRO’s most complex technical undertaking to date, involving five distinct modules launched across two separate rocket payloads—the heavy-lift LVM3 and the reliable PSLV. The spacecraft components will perform autonomous docking maneuvers in lunar orbit to transfer the collected samples before initiating the trajectory back toward Earth. ISRO engineers emphasize that mastering space docking and controlled re-entry is vital for India’s upcoming Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS) and future crewed lunar missions.

With an allocated budget of ₹2,104 crore ($250 million), Chandrayaan-4 is targeted for launch in 2028. Beyond enhancing planetary defense and space biology capabilities, the mission reinforces India’s commitment to low-cost, high-impact space science. Global space agencies have lauded the initiative, noting that physical access to pristine lunar polar samples could unlock critical answers regarding the Moon’s origin, resource potential, and future human habitability.