Bengaluru. To further strengthen cooperation in space activities between India and Australia, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has signed an ‘Implementation Agreement’ (IA) with the Australian Space Agency (ASA). ISRO gave this information on Thursday.
Under this agreement, cooperation between the two space agencies will be possible on crew and crew ‘module’ return for the Gaganyaan mission. Gaganyaan is the country’s first manned mission. The space agency said in a statement that the agreement was signed on November 20 by DK Singh, Director of Human Space Flight Center (HSFC) on behalf of ISRO in Bengaluru and Jarrod Powell, General Manager, Space Capability Branch on behalf of ASA in Canberra.
ISRO has launched the Human Spaceflight (Gaganyaan) programme, which aims to fly in low Earth orbit for three days with three crew members in an Indian ‘module’ and bring back the ‘module’ safely. ISRO said that under this agreement, Australian authorities will work closely with Indian authorities to ensure assistance for the search for the crew and the return of the crew module. According to the statement, India and Australia are permanent strategic partners and both the space agencies are working together. The statement said both agencies are committed to exploring current and future collaborative activities.