INDIA plans to set up its very own space station and the modalities will be worked out after it initially kept an eye on a space mission, Gaganyaan, is finished, ISRO administrator Dr. K Sivan said Thursday.

"We need a different space station. Our space station will be little. We will dispatch a little module of 20 tons for microgravity tests. This is our desire. Everybody begins with a little module and just later grows," he said at a question and answer session for the dispatch of India's goal-oriented Chandrayaan 2 venture to the moon.

Sivan said ISRO is drawing up designs for the space station, which is probably going to be prepared in the following five to seven years. The space station will be set in a circle of 400 km over the earth — low-earth circle — where space explorers can remain for 15-20 days. Just a single such office exists now, which is the International Space Station (ISS) kept running by NASA.

A space station is basically a huge rocket that remaining parts in a low-earth circle for broadened timeframes. It resembles a huge research center in space and enables space explorers to get on and remain for quite a long time or months to complete tests.

The Mir space station of the previous Soviet Union, and later worked by Russia, was practical from 1986 to 2001. The ISS has been in space since 1998.

MoS Space Dr. Jitendra Singh, in the interim, said India's "first human mission will be sent to space by 2022". "We will be the fourth nation to have a delicate arriving on the moon with Chandrayaan 2. I am glad to report that on the eve of our 75th Independence commemoration, ISRO has made plans to send our first human mission to space. The planning for that is under the procedure," he said.