On Tuesday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson made his first visit to India and conveyed his excitement for a week of talks and activities focused on enhancing the collaboration between NASA and ISRO. Nelson is in India for a critical mission, to review the space cooperation agreements signed between PM Modi and President Biden earlier this year and discuss the launch of the NISAR earth satellite in early 2024.

Senator Bill Nelson congratulated India & ISRO for successfully sending a rover to the south pole of the moon. "India is a great partner for NASA. We congratulate you for landing on the South Pole of the moon. This is a significant achievement. The US will be sending private landers to the South Pole in 2024, but India has already done it. You have our congratulations", he said, while speaking to journalists in New Delhi.

The Nasa chief also hailed India as a “great future partner for astronauts in space”, and said that the two countries will launch a low earth orbit observatory from India in early 2024.

Nelson stated that the NISAR earth observation satellite launch was the NASA and ISRO space cooperation's top priority at the moment. He said that although the project will cost more than a billion dollars, it will be an excellent observatory that will assist everyone on the planet.

NISAR is an equal collaboration between NASA and ISRO and marks the first time the two agencies have cooperated on hardware development for an Earth-observing mission. NISAR is a low earth orbit observatory being jointly developed by NASA and ISRO to map the entire globe in 12 days and provide data for understanding changes in Earth’s ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea level rise, groundwater and natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides.

It carries L and S dual-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that will observe large swathes with high-resolution data. The SAR payloads mounted on integrated radar instrument structure and the spacecraft bus are together called an observatory.

NISAR is targeted for launch onboard India’s geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle, the statement by the Department of Space said.

"We will have a three-dimensional model of what is happening on Earth and to the climate. This satellite will help us look at the surface and analyze movements such as earthquakes, moving of ice and water", he said.

The Prime Minister called on ISRO scientists to set up an Indian Space Station by 2035 and send an Indian to the moon by 2040.

“We are going to de-orbit our space station in 2031. We expect by that time to have commercial space stations. If India wants us to counsel or collaborate with them, of course we would be willing to,” he said. Nelson said another major programme emerging from India-US collaboration would be the NISAR satellite to be launched in the first quarter of 2024.

“It was part of the agreement …. that NASA will help train an Indian astronaut and that astronaut will fly to the International Space Station at the end of 2024,” said Nelson, adding that the astronaut would be selected by ISRO. The selection will likely be from among the four persons who have undergone basic space astronaut training in preparation for the Gaganyaan mission. The science objectives for the two-week-long mission will be decided by India.

Nelson said one of the priorities during the meeting between President Biden and President Xi Jinping was responsible competition in space. "There is a space race that is on. The US plans to send a private lander to the moon next year. We understand China wants to do so as well. It's important to do it responsibly and safely", he added.

During his India visit, Nelson will be meeting Indian private companies operating in the space sector and will also be meeting Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian astronaut to travel to space.

Image source: AFP