Water on the moon? To check, US probe will ride India lunar mission

This instrument, built by the John Hopkins University, along with what is a Moon Mineralogy Mapper will be the two NASA payloads on Chandrayaan-I. There are four other payloads from the Euro Space Agency and one from Bulgaria. While the rest had been firmed up earlier, the US payloads were caught up in discussions.

For more than six months, the two sides have been negotiating this agreement which enables space agencies in India and the US to kickstart the technical collaboration needed to integrate these instruments with the Indian satellite.

Further, it spells out the terms for sharing data and acts as a license for Indian and US entities get involved in the project. The hurdles were removed over the past couple of days and now only the formalities remained.

This, sources said, is among the first technical assistance agreements to be signed with the US and hence delay was expected. That it has happened will lead to a history of sorts because getting US payloads on an Indian satellite was ‘‘unthinkable’’ till not so long ago.

From an Indian standpoint, it also provides a positive setting to the negotiations on the technical safeguards agreement and the all-important commercial satellite launch agreement. While the former will give India access to all satellites with US-manufactured equipment, the latter will pave the way for India to be able to launch US satellites on a commercial basis.

Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, who is expected to go to the US later this month, will look to obtain a draft of the agreement to launch satellites commercially. Currently, India cannot even obtain satellites using US components and these efforts are precisely to widen the choice for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The US, for its part, has offered India to identify an astronaut to participate in a NASA mission. However, South Block officials are still mulling over the idea because New Delhi is more keen on emphasising the business aspects of the space cooperation.