NASA will be training two Indian astronauts, which will eventually fly to the International Space Station later next year.
Speaking at an event in Bengaluru, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that “There is an opportunity to share science”, where he is due to inspect the NISAR satellite this Thursday.
Bill also said NASA is waiting approval from ISRO to kick off the astronaut training. In an interview with NDTV , Bill also said that “It would be the end of 2024 that the Indian astronauts would go to the space station, probably for two weeks, and then they would conduct scientific experiments that would be of importance to India”.
Meanwhile, both the NASA and ISRO space agencies are launching the NISAR earth observation satellite early next year.
NISAR is a low earth-orbit satellite observatory launched by both agencies, which is about the size of an SUV. It’s set to launch from India in January of next year.
The satellite will map the entire planet once every 12 days. It will provide data for understanding changes in ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, and more.