US and India discuss advancing space partnership, announce initiatives

New Delhi: The US and India are set to strengthen space cooperation, including for human spaceflight, and joint space exploration, and are expected to facilitate commercial partnerships between space companies of both countries to advance shared interests in the growing space economy.

After US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2023 committed to work together to “reach new frontiers across all sectors of space cooperation” and India’s signing of the Artemis Accords, the two nations reached an inflection point on collaboration across civil, security, and commercial space sectors, the White House said in a press statement.

To mark this significant progress in cooperation, the US Principal Deputy National Security Advisor (PDNSA) Jon Finer, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, and Indian Ambassador to the US Vinay Kwatra recently travelled to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

As part of their visit to Houston, PDNSA Finer and Deputy Secretary Campbell met with representatives from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), and space industry leaders to identify new opportunities to further strengthen our burgeoning space partnership, the statement said.

“Wonderful to visit the Johnson Space Center of @NASA with @DeputySecState Kurt Campbell and Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer. Had the opportunity to discuss space cooperation including the human space flight programme and enhancing partnership between the two private sectors in the fields of innovation and technology,” Kwatra shared in a post on social media platform X.

“Was also glad to meet the Indian astronauts training at Houston,” he added, referring to the two ISRO astronauts training at the Johnson Space Centre.

“The launch of the Axiom-4 mission as soon as spring 2025 will mark a significant milestone in the US-India space partnership and space exploration,” the White House said.

At the meeting, the executives reflected on the accomplishments made in the space sector in the past few months and also charted next steps to take the partnership to the next level.

The experts celebrated the completion of a strategic framework for human spaceflight cooperation “to deepen interoperability in space and work toward the conclusion of a new arrangement on advanced astronaut training”.

Together, India and US are set to launch the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) in early 2025 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh

The experts also agreed to explore the creation of a new space innovation bridge to promote partnerships between US and Indian startups. This will be “focused on advancing space situational awareness, satellite technology, and space launch and exploration”.

The two sides also called for promoting defense space cooperation, and also advance reviews of Missile Technology exports to generate new opportunities for bilateral industry partnerships on space launch technology, including for commercial satellite launches.