ISRO & ESA agree to cooperate on astronaut training, mission implementation

Bengaluru: ISRO on Saturday said it has entered into an agreement with European Space Agency (ESA) for cooperation on activities related to astronaut training, mission implementation, and research experiments.

The agreement was signed by ISRO Chairman and Secretary, Department of Space (DOS) Dr S Somanath and ESA Director General Dr Josef Aschbacher.

The agreement provides a framework for cooperative activities in human space exploration and research, especially in areas such as astronaut training, support for experiment development and integration, using ESA facilities on the International Space Station (ISS), human and biomedical research experiment implementation as well as joint education and outreach activities, ISRO said in a statement.

For the upcoming Axiom-4 mission in which ISRO's Gaganyatri and ESA's astronaut are crew members, both agencies are collaborating to implement shortlisted experiments by Indian Principal Investigators on ISS, it said.

Further, participation in ESA's human physiological studies, technology demonstration experiments as well as joint educational outreach activities are also being pursued, it added.

Somanath in his remarks highlighted that ISRO has defined a roadmap for human space flight activities and the recent approval of Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS) (India's proposed indigenous space station) presents an opportunity to develop interoperability between human spaceflight platforms.

Dr. Aschbacher thanked Dr Somanath for speaking at the ESA Council and remarked that the agreement provides a strong basis for cooperation between the two agencies.

The leadership of both agencies expressed satisfaction with the progress of joint activities for the upcoming Axiom-4 mission and underlined the need for continuing cooperative activities in the area of human spaceflight in the future, ISRO added.