NASA Invites ISRO to Join Moon Base Programme

NASA has invited the Indian Space Research Organisation to join its ambitious Moon Base programme, a significant step in bilateral space cooperation that aims to establish humanity's first long-term lunar outpost. The invitation was extended during the ninth meeting of the Civil Space Joint Working Group, held last week at ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru, India.

The Moon Base programme is designed to support a sustained human presence on the lunar surface, with astronauts living and working near the Moon's South Pole. Through a series of crewed and uncrewed missions, NASA and its international partners plan to build the necessary infrastructure for extended exploration and scientific research. The collaboration builds upon the existing partnership between the two nations under the Artemis Accords, a framework for peaceful lunar exploration.

During the working group meeting, officials from both countries discussed advancing cooperation on open scientific data sharing under the Accords. The talks also focused on future collaborations in science and human spaceflight technology, expanding on the successful launch of the joint NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar mission, known as...