NASA invites ISRO to join its Moon base programme

The US space agency NASA has extended an invitation to India's ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) to join its Moon Base programme. This move aims to strengthen the already existing partnership between the two countries under the Artemis Accords. The offer was made during a meeting of the India-US Civil Space Joint Working Group in Bengaluru on August 5 and 6.

The US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, also addressed the meeting. India joined the Artemis Accords, a US-led space alliance, in 2023, becoming the 27th country to sign on. Currently, 70 countries are part of the Accords. Following India's participation, NASA invited ISRO to collaborate on the Moon Base project, aiming to build a permanent settlement on the Moon.

Both countries have been strengthening their ties in the space sector in recent years. Last year, they launched the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission, a first-of-its-kind joint space mission. The invitation to ISRO to participate in the Moon Base programme is a logical step in this ongoing cooperation. NASA has launched an Artemis programme to send humans back to the Moon, with the first crewed flight planned for around 2028.

ISRO, on the other hand, is pursuing its own human spaceflight programme Gaganyaan, with plans to land humans on the Moon by 2040.