- NASA chief Bill Nelson’s comment on a possible Indian space station came in response to a question.
- He said the US was ready to collaborate in building the ‘Bharatiya Antariksha Station’ (Indian Space Station) project,
- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) chief Bill Nelson on Tuesday said the joint Indo-USA NISER satellite would be “one of the great observatories” to look at the changes happening on the Earth.
- PM Narendra Modi has asked the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to work towards building an Indian space station by the year 2035 and landing an Indian astronaut on the moon by the year 2040.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Administrator Bill Nelson said on Tuesday (November 28) that the United States was open to collaboration with India in building its own space station. He is in India. Nelson said that the US and India were planning to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) by the end of next year. “The selection of astronaut is determined by ISRO. NASA will not make the selection,” said Nelson as quoted by Press Trust of India.
His comment on a possible Indian space station came in response to a question. He said the US was ready to collaborate in building the space station if India desires. “We expect by that time to have a commercial space station. I think India wants to have a commercial space station by 2040. If India wants us to collaborate with them, of course, we will be available. But that’s up to India,” Nelson said.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to work towards building an Indian space station by the year 2035 and landing an Indian astronaut on the moon by the year 2040.
On Tuesday, Nelson headed a delegation and met India’s Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh “I had a discussion with the minister on what the Indian astronaut would do on the space station. The two of us talked about the fact that things are important to India in scientific research, and the Indian astronaut ought to have that as a choice to do. If there is a particular part of research that he or she would be interested in, then I want to encourage that,” Nelson later said at a media interaction.
On Tuesday, Nelson also spoke about the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) observatory which is slated to be launched in the first quarter of 2024.
“In the first quarter of 2024, in a joint venture, India will launch a very expensive spacecraft, NISAR, and it is part of what we call our great observatories. And the combination of these four or five observatories that will be put up, and all our 25 spacecraft looking at the Earth…the combination of all that information…is helping us precisely determine what is happening to the Earth and its climate,” Nelson said as quoted by a media outlet.
(With inputs from agencies)
