Thread by @IamTheStory__

India US to set up space collaboration for areas of human space flight, planetary defense, and commercial space activity.

#India #USA #ISRO #NASA

1. As per the Initiative on critical and emerging technologies (ICET), jointly agreed by the US national security advisor, Jake Sullivan and India's NSA Ajit Doval, in January 2023, The US Govt. has shown keen interest in strengthening
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2. human space flight cooperation, identifying areas of development for both countries to collaborate in the commercial space including through a joint working group, and identifying new talent and talent exchanges by setting up the engineer and scientist exchange programme.

3. The US has shared its intent to help India’s Gangayaan mission, which aims to demonstrate human space flight capability by launching a crew of three members to an orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission now scheduled for 2025.

4. it will also be the first time India and the US will jointly work on planetary defense. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a planetary defense coordination office set up in 2016 that looks for and catalogs near-earth objects (NEOs) /n

5. such as comets, asteroids, and potentially hazardous objects, which come within 30 million miles of the earth’s orbit. It warns of the potential impact of NEOs and works with other governments to “ensure global planetary defense efforts are coordinated and streamlined”.

6. India opened its space sector for private players in 2020, the country is home to a growing private sector space industry with start-ups at the cutting edge of technology. The growing collaboration will be reflected both at Indus-X /n

7. an event to be hosted by the US-India Business Council to accelerate start-up innovation and connect them with big capital and governments as well as the constitution of a working group for space and defense sector.

8. India and the US are discussing the India’s participation in the Artemis Accords, a space exploration programme led by the US along with 24 other countries, that establishes a framework for civil cooperation and peaceful use of the moon, Mars and other astronomical objects.

9.India has signed an “implementation agreement” that is a legal instrument related to the Artemis Accords. However, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is still not a partner agency when it comes to any of the missions conceived under the Artemis Accords.

10. in April 2022, India and the US agreed on an agreement for collaborative on space situational awareness. Isro and NASA are also working on NISAR (NASA ISRO Observatory), scheduled to be launched from India in 2024.

11. The NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) Mission will measure Earth’s changing ecosystems, dynamic surfaces, and ice masses providing information about biomass, natural hazards, sea level rise, and groundwater, and will support a host of other applications.

12. NISAR will observe Earth’s land and ice-covered surfaces globally with 12-day regularity on ascending and descending passes, sampling Earth on average every 6 days for a baseline 3-year mission.

13. With India's growing economic clout and strategic importance in the wake of a belligerent China and a resilient Russia defying US monopolies, The US Govt looks to leave no stone unturned to placate India and establish it as its numero uno ally in Asia during PM Modi's visit.