NEW DELHI: A US space envoy on Friday said that Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) in collaboration with the US space agency can send a team of Indian astronauts to International Space Station (ISS) where the Indian team can perform various space experiments.

On the sidelines of a FICCI-organised interactive session, Major General (retd) Charles Frank Bolden Jr, US Science Envoy for Space and former NASA administrator, told TOI, "Isro and Nasa can work out a joint mission to ISS for bio-medical research. If both agencies agree on the mission and work out the cost-sharing deal for the programme, Nasa will contract a space vehicle from Space X for the mission. The joint collaboration is possible."

On providing advanced training to Gagannauts for India's Gaganyaan mission, Bolden, who a day before talked with Isro chairman K Sivan on Indo-US space cooperation, said, "Nasa does not provide astronaut training. In fact, the US space agency itself has been outsourcing astronaut training programme to US private entities for a long time." However, he said the Isro chairman told him about his "discussion with current NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine on a working group that will focus on astronaut selection, training and designing of spacecraft".

Bolden as Nasa administrator had overseen the safe transition from 30 years of space shuttle missions to a new era of exploration focussed on full utilisation of the ISS, and space and aeronautics technology development. Under Bolden, Nasa's science activities included landing on Mars with the Curiosity rover, launch of a spacecraft to Jupiter and progress towards the 2018 launch of James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to Hubble space telescope. Bolden is also a former Marine and decorated military officer, who had flown over 100 combat missions during the Vietnam War.

On a billion dollar Isro-Nasa joint project to co-develop an earth observation satellite with synthetic aperture radars (NISAR mission) whose launch is expected next year, Bolden, a former astronaut, said, "The satellite will be the first radar imaging satellite to use dual frequencies. Nasa will provide L-band synthetic aperture radar while Isro will provide an S-band synthetic aperture radar. India is providing a particular sensor and a wavelength which we (US) don't have. Therefore the joint collaboration."

Once launched, the NISAR satellite will help observe and take measurements of some of the planet’s most complex processes, including ecosystem disturbances, ice-sheet collapse and natural hazards.

At the conference, Kiran Kumar, chairman of Physical Research Laboratory, Department of Space, and former Isro chairman, too recalled the decades-old Indo-US space cooperation. He said, "Vikram Sarabhai, whose centenary Isro is celebrating this year, should be credited for boosting space cooperation with the US. It was Nasa which helped India design its first experimental satellite communication project SITE. Currently, both the space agencies are working on the advanced radar imaging satellite mission."

