NASA Administrator Bill Nelson
The administrator of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Bill Nelson, on June 20, 2024, emphasised a collaboration of India and US in the space sector. This comes a few days after the United States National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan came to India and discussed various areas of bilateral cooperation between the two countries including the space sector.
“Building on my visit to India last year, NASA continues to further the India-United States Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) for the benefit of humanity,” Nelson said on X.
He said that the joint collaboration is being expanded to include combined effort aboard the International Space Station (ISS) with an ISRO astronaut. “Together, we are expanding our countries collaboration in space to include a joint effort aboard the International Space Station with an ISRO astronaut,” he said.
While Nelson revealed specific details about the mission saying that they are still in work, India and the US have recently concluded Strategic Framework for Human Spaceflight Operations. “These efforts will support future human spaceflight and improve life here on earth, Nelson concluded as work commencing advanced training for ISRO astronauts at the NASA Johnson Space Centre is ongoing.
India and US are also preparing for the launch of NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), a jointly developed satellite to map the entirety of the Earth Surface twice every twelve days.
The meeting between NSA Ajit Doval and Jake Sullivan also concluded that India and the US must remain at the forefront of the developing critical technologies as part of a larger strategic interest. Ajit Doval and Jake Sullivan also unveiled a raft of transformative initiatives to deepen Indo-US cooperation in areas of artificial intelligence, semiconductors, critical minerals, advanced telecommunication and defence space.
The iCET was launched by PM Modi and the US President Joe Biden in May 2022 to forge greater collaboration between India and the US in areas of critical technologies. Sullivan visited New Delhi from June 17 to 18, 2024 the first trip to India by a senior Biden administration official after the Modi government came to power for a third term. The US National Security Advisor was accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising senior US government officials and industry leaders.
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