While Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden signed an agreement on June 22 to conceive a joint mission sending an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) by 2024, it is unclear if this will involve astronauts currently being trained for the indigenous Gaganyaan mission.
“The details of this mission… on whether someone being trained for Gaganyaan will be part of the ISS trip is still to be decided,” Minister of State (Space), Jitendra Singh, told reporters on June 23. He also said that it was yet uncertain if an Indian astronaut will be in space before the proposed Gaganyaan mission. The agreement mentions providing “advanced training” to Indian astronauts at the Johnson Space Centre, Houston, Texas.
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The Gaganyaan mission, led by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), proposes to launch a crew of three into an orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission and bring them back safely to earth. There are multiple tests underway to test each aspect of this mission and, Mr Singh has told Parliament that the final launch is scheduled for the “fourth quarter of 2024.” India is currently collaborating with Russia in training the future Gaganyaan astronauts.
ISRO’s reservations
S Somnath, Chairman, ISRO, told The Hindu that the proposed participants in the ISS was “yet to be decided.” The decision to have an Indian astronaut on the ISS marks a significant change to Isro’s policy that has historically seen little value to having an Indian astronaut aboard the ISS. Mr Somnath in an April 2022 interview to the publication Geospatial World said, “We did not join ISS because in our assessment, we didn’t find merit in joining it.” His predecessor, S Sivan, in June 2019 had stated that India would not join the ISS and would work on developing its own space station. Mr Somnath did not respond to a query from The Hindu on the reasons for this policy shift.
“For a long time there has been a question on whether we should be part of the (ISS). Ultimately this has happened. Certain quarters had some reservations at the diplomatic level but now there is unanimity,” said Singh.
ISS manned since 1998
Since its launch in 1998, the ISS has continuously been inhabited since November 2000 under a U.S.-Russian-led partnership that also includes Canada, Japan and 11 European countries. Russia last year, following the outbreak of the Ukraine war, has said it will withdraw from the ISS after 2024 though the US has said that it was committed to continue supporting the project until 2030 and that it was discussing this with its “partners.”
Artemis Accords
Along with the ISS agreement, India also signed the Artemis Accords, a compact of 27 countries, promoted by the United States that envisages a manned mission to the moon by 2025 along with several other space-exploration initiatives.
“(The Americans) have planned an ambitious programme to return to the moon by 2025 and they say that the next mission will have a non-White, maybe a woman, (on board)…They wish India to be equal partners on this. We are offering them (the Americans) as much as they have to offer. This is a celebration of Indo-US friendship in space and as PM Modi said, the sky is no longer the limit,” Mr Singh added, “The Artemis agreement is non-binding and is unlikely to involve a major financial commitment now.”
The Artemis Accords, a document that India has been weighing for a few years since the Trump administration, envisages peaceful exploration of space and equitably sharing resources on the moon, be they private or public companies. China and Russia – two major space faring nations – have objected to provisions of the Accords on the grounds that it constituted a “power grab” of moon territory by the United States.
