Sweden Joins India's Shukrayaan Mission

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Europe, Sweden joined India's Venus Orbiter Mission.

Norway also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to strengthen bilateral space cooperation.

India's Venus mission, popularly known as Shukrayaan or Venus Orbiter Mission (VOM), is a planned mission by ISRO to study the planet Venus and its atmosphere.

ISRO's Venus Orbiter Mission is expected to launch in 2028 and will be India's first dedicated mission to Venus. India's Venus spacecraft will embark on a 112-day journey.

The Swedish Institute of Space Physics will develop a scientific instrument called the Venusian Neutrals Analyzer (VNA). This instrument will be installed on India's Venus Orbiter.

The VNA will study how charged particles from the Sun interact with Venus' atmosphere and exosphere.

The Venus Orbiter Mission

The Venus Orbiter Mission was approved by the Modi Cabinet in 2024, with a budget of ₹1,236 crore. Under this mission, the spacecraft will first be launched into an elliptical orbit using an LVM-3 rocket.

The spacecraft will then gradually orbit Venus, with a closest approach (periapsis) of 500 km and a farthest approach (apoapsis) of 60,000 km.

The mission will include a total of 19 payloads (scientific instruments), including both Indian and international instruments. The mission's Preliminary Design Review was completed in April 2026.

Through this mission, ISRO aims to study Venus's dense atmosphere, volcanic surface, weather systems, and mysterious "super-rotating" clouds.

Scientists also want to investigate whether Venus once had favorable conditions for liquid water, which later transformed into an extremely hot "greenhouse" planet.

Previous global missions to Venus

America - Mariner series 1962-1974, Pioneer Venus-1 and Pioneer Venus-2 in 1978, and Magellan in 1989.

Russia - Venera series 1967-1983, Vegas-1 and Vegas-2 in 1985.

Japan - Akatsuki in 2015.

Europe - Venus Express in 2005

Venus

Named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. It is the second-brightest natural planet in the night sky after the Moon, which is likely why it was the first planet to be identified by its motion in the sky in the second millennium BC.

Unlike the other planets in our solar system, Venus and Uranus rotate clockwise on their axis.

It is the hottest planet in the solar system due to its high concentration of carbon dioxide, which creates a strong greenhouse effect. It takes 243 Earth days for any planet in the solar system to rotate once, and 224.7 Earth days to complete one orbit around the Sun.