PM Modi US visit: India-US to scale up space collaboration

India and the United States will scale up their space-related collaboration in three areas including planetary defense, commercial space activity, and human space flight during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington DC on June 22. In addition, the two sides are also discussing New Delhi's participation in the Artemis Accords, according to a report published by Hindustan Times. 

In January, both countries' national advisors Jake Sullivan and Ajit Doval agreed upon the White House factsheet under the initiative on critical and emerging technologies (ICET). 

The factsheet mentioned strengthening human space flight cooperation and identifying innovative approaches for both countries to collaborate in commercial space along with advanced training for an Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) at NASA Johnson Space Center. 

People familiar with the discussions said there will be deeper collaboration on astronaut training, crew rescue, and other activities in human space flight during PM Modi's visit to the US, HT reported. 

They added that the space collaboration between the two countries would also help India’s Gangayaan mission. The mission aims at demonstrating human space flight capability by launching a crew of three members to an orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission which is scheduled for 2025. 

Recently, India and the US set up a human space flight working group under their Initiative of Critical and Emerging Technologies (ICET) Dialogue.

Over the years there have been ups and downs in India-US space collaboration. Initially, India focused more on collaborating with the Soviet Union.

“The NISAR missions are a good example. India has an instrument. The United States has an instrument, and it's truly a collaboration of equals. So that's kind of how I see evolution. And going forward I think we will be on the critical path for India's missions. India will be in the critical path for US missions, and we will be true partners,” the NASA official said. 

Noting that NASA hames a program called CLIPS, commercial lunar payload services, the official said there could be a lot of opportunities for private companies in India to collaborate with these CLIPS providers and private companies in the US.

“Planetary defense is a great area for collaboration. It is something that we are all in it together. Sixty-five million years ago, there was an asteroid that basically destroyed all non-avian life on earth. We do not want things like that happening again," she added.