US, India Agree on Space Collaboration Plans

Officials from India and the United States have outlined future steps in their space collaboration following a meeting in Houston on December 17. This partnership, spurred by commitments from President Biden and Prime Minister Modi in June 2023, focuses on human spaceflight, joint exploration, and enhancing commercial partnerships between US and Indian space companies. Key developments include the selection of two ISRO astronauts to train at NASA's Johnson Space Center for a joint mission at the International Space Station, with Axiom Space facilitating the Axiom-4 launch slated for spring 2025. The discussions also highlighted progress on the jointly developed NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar Earth Science (NISAR) satellite, scheduled for launch in 2025. Overall, the initiative aims to strengthen the burgeoning US-India space economy and cooperation across civil, security, and commercial sectors.