AstroSat, a dedicated Space Observatory of India, has completed five successful years of operation in space on 28th September 2020. AstroSat is a quite complex satellite, as it is a multi-wavelength observatory with many scientific instruments. The saga of many agencies, including Indian Space ResearchOrganisation, the lead agency, and many scientists and engineers has resulted in realizing and operating this mission with excellent performance and highly satisfactory results. This mission generated a lot of observations leading to enhanced research activity for Indian astronomers, as well as international astronomers. It has also kindled interest, as expected, in young scientists and science students. The mission still continues in orbit contributing to celestial observations. AstroSat is a collaborative effort of many agencies not only fromIndia but also from international agencies. The managers and the project team had to face many technological and managerial challenges at various stages of the mission. In this paper we present the challenges in conceiving a space science mission in India, and methods adopted to overcome them to make the mission successful. This may help in planning and executing future space science missions, more efficiently, meeting the growing demands from the scientific community involved in the frontier areas of space research.

India has an expanding program in using space as a platform for research. Astrophysics research from satellites increasingly complement ground-based observations with unique wavelength coverage, more frequent temporal coverage and diffraction-limited observations. India’s first dedicated space astronomy mission, AstroSat has completed five years in orbit and continues to generate important results. Most onboard systems are healthy and the mission is expected to continue to operate for many more years. Plans for space astronomy missions beyond AstroSat, are under discussion for some time. These are based on responses from the Indian research community to an announcement of Opportunity call in early 2018. Here we discuss, an outline of the science focus of future space astronomy missions, under consideration.