4 min readNew DelhiJun 23, 2023 02:28 PM IST
First published on: Jun 22, 2023 at 04:15 PM IST
In a decision that will bring the two countries’ space programmes closer than ever before, India on Thursday signed on to the three-year-old Artemis Accords, a US-led alliance seeking to facilitate international collaboration in planetary exploration and research.
In a related development, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will partner the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US in sending a joint mission to the International Space Station, a permanent laboratory in space, next year. It was not immediately clear whether the joint mission would include an Indian astronaut to the space station.
The Artemis Accords, established by the US and seven partner countries in October 2020, are a set of 13 principles that seek to promote peaceful and cooperative exploration of space. The signatory countries agree to abide by these principles that are mostly a reiteration of established international law on space exploration, like a commitment not to use space for military purposes, a promise to cooperate on matters of safety of space assets and astronauts, and a willingness to share scientific data from space missions.
The Accords have been signed by 26 countries till now, including the original eight. These include traditional US allies like Japan, Australia, UK, France and Canada, but also countries with relatively less developed space programmes like Colombia, Rwanda, Nigeria and Mexico.
Crucially, China and Russia are not part of this initiative, because of which it is sometimes seen as a US-led space alliance, promoting US interests in the space sector. Both Russia and China had expressed reservations when the Accords came into being.
The Artemis Accords are closely linked to NASA’s Artemis programme that is aimed at returning to the moon, setting up a permanent station there, and then using it for deep space exploration. NASA is also keen to emphasise that the Artemis programme will take the first woman, and the “first person of color”, to the moon.
As part of the programme, NASA launched the Artemis-1 mission on November 16 last year, sending an unmanned Orion spacecraft aboard its new-age heavy duty rocket called Space Launch System or SLS. The Orion spacecraft went around the moon and came back to Earth on December 11 last year.
India’s sign-up to the Artemis Accords does not mean an automatic partnership in the Artemis programme, but it does open up possibilities of much closer cooperation between the space agencies of the two countries. In fact, the text of the Accords clearly mentions that its purpose is to establish a common vision, and enhance the governance of civil exploration of outer space “with the intention of advancing the Artemis Program”.
If the other agreement about sending a joint mission to the International Space Station, which is separate from the signing of Artemis Accords, fructifies next year, it could potentially be India’s early chance of sending its astronauts in space. India’s own human spaceflight programme, Gaganyaan, has been delayed and is now scheduled for next year. But ISRO chairman S Somnath recently indicated that the schedule could be pushed back further.
“There are eight major tests (remaining to be carried out) and if all eight major tests happen successfully without any major glitch, then the launch could be happening in a 2024 timeframe. But if I face problems and challenges, which is natural in this process, then I have to discount the schedule,” Somnath had said recently in Bengaluru on the sidelines of an international conference.
A group of candidate astronauts have been undergoing training for the Gaganyaan for over three years now. Gaganyaan has the capacity to carry a maximum of three astronauts.
ISRO and NASA have already been collaborating on several projects, the most notable of which is the joint NISAR mission slated for a launch next year.
President Joe Biden talks with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (AP Photo) 
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