US To Send Indian Astronaut To International Space Station By End Of 2024, Says Country’s Envoy: Report

Eric Garcetti said that NISAR is also likely to be launched by the end of 2024, and that both India and the US should work on coordinating research and critical emerging technology.

The United States (US) will send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) by the end of 2024, Eric Garcetti, US envoy to India, has said. When India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the US in 2023, the country promised him that an Indian astronaut will be launched to the ISS from US soil, Garcetti said Monday, news agency PTI reported.

The mission is still on track, according to Garcetti. 

What other information about science events did Garcetti reveal?

Garcetti revealed this information on the sidelines of an event. The US Ambassador also spoke about NISAR, a joint project between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). NISAR, which stands for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, is an Earth-observing satellite that plans to analyse and survey all of Earth's lands and ice-covered surfaces every 12 days.

Garcetti said that NISAR is also likely to be launched by the end of 2024, and that both India and the US should work on coordinating research and critical emerging technology in order to leverage each other’s strengths.

The US envoy lauded Chandrayaan-3, stating that the Moon mission cost a fraction of the cost that the US spent on a similar lunar mission.

Quoting Garcetti, the PTI report said that the US has some capacities that India does not have to this date, but when the two are combined, both countries have those capacities. 

US companies will build nuclear reactors in Mithi Virdi in Gujarat and Kovadda in Andhra Pradesh. The Civil Liability Nuclear Damage Act 2010 provides for prompt compensation to victims of nuclear accidents through a no-fault liability regime. This means that the defendant will be held negligible even if there is no fault of his. Therefore, the US companies have raised concerns over this Act.

Post elections, the Indian government can address liabilities in the civilian nuclear energy arena, said Garcetti.

On the space front, Blue Origin launched Gopichand Thotakura to space on May 19, 2024, from West Texas, making him India’s first civilian astronaut, and the country’s second person to go to space, after Rakesh Sharma.