India, a Growing Space Power, Is Forging Closer Ties With NASA 53
Stephen Clark writes via Ars Technica: When India's ambassador to the US signed up his country to the Artemis Accords last month, it signaled the world's most populous nation -- with a growing prowess in spaceflight -- could be turning toward the United States as a partner in space exploration. India became the 27th country to sign the Artemis Accords, a non-binding set of principles among like-minded nations guiding a vision for peaceful and transparent exploration of space. The accords cover the international registration of human-made space objects, the open release of scientific data, and an agreement for nations not to claim territory on the Moon or other planetary bodies, among other tenets.
Details about future cooperation between the US and India remain scarce. Nelson plans to travel to India later this year for meetings and discussions with Indian space officials. One objective of Nelson's trip will be to hammer out broad objectives for a "strategic framework" for human spaceflight cooperation. Despite the name of the Artemis Accords, there's no guarantee that India will play a significant role in NASA's Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon and eventually send humans to Mars. "There's no implication of a signatory to the Artemis accords also being part of the Artemis program," Nelson told Ars.
But none of the other 26 signatories to the Artemis Accords -- a list that includes European space powers and Japan -- has their own human spaceflight program. India is developing a human-rated spacecraft called Gaganyaan that could be ready to fly people into low-Earth orbit in 2025, several years later than originally planned. "The fact that they are a nation that intends in the future to fly own their own astronauts, is that significant? The answer is yes," Nelson said. "I think it's of significance that a major country that's not considered aligned with the US (is) a signatory." "I've described India as a sleeping giant and one that is quickly awakening," Gold told Ars. "India is absolutely vital to global space development, and Artemis in particular, since the country is active with lunar programs, Martian programs, and now even human spaceflight." "Where India might fit into the Artemis program is still to be determined," writes Clark. "The partnership between the US and India in space could take a step forward next year with the flight of an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station. NASA has agreed to provide advanced training to Indian astronauts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston before a flight opportunity to the space station in low-Earth orbit."
India's space program has "held closer ties with Russia in the past," notes Clark. "Russia provided upper-stage engines for India's GSLV Mk.II rocket until India developed its own engine for the job. And four Indian astronauts slated for the Gaganyaan program completed more than a year of training at Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow in 2021, according to Indian media."
"Despite India's overture toward a closer relationship with NASA, the Asian power remains linked with Russia," adds Clark. "India still imports significant amounts of Russian oil and has not officially condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine."
Details about future cooperation between the US and India remain scarce. Nelson plans to travel to India later this year for meetings and discussions with Indian space officials. One objective of Nelson's trip will be to hammer out broad objectives for a "strategic framework" for human spaceflight cooperation. Despite the name of the Artemis Accords, there's no guarantee that India will play a significant role in NASA's Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon and eventually send humans to Mars. "There's no implication of a signatory to the Artemis accords also being part of the Artemis program," Nelson told Ars.
But none of the other 26 signatories to the Artemis Accords -- a list that includes European space powers and Japan -- has their own human spaceflight program. India is developing a human-rated spacecraft called Gaganyaan that could be ready to fly people into low-Earth orbit in 2025, several years later than originally planned. "The fact that they are a nation that intends in the future to fly own their own astronauts, is that significant? The answer is yes," Nelson said. "I think it's of significance that a major country that's not considered aligned with the US (is) a signatory." "I've described India as a sleeping giant and one that is quickly awakening," Gold told Ars. "India is absolutely vital to global space development, and Artemis in particular, since the country is active with lunar programs, Martian programs, and now even human spaceflight." "Where India might fit into the Artemis program is still to be determined," writes Clark. "The partnership between the US and India in space could take a step forward next year with the flight of an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station. NASA has agreed to provide advanced training to Indian astronauts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston before a flight opportunity to the space station in low-Earth orbit."
India's space program has "held closer ties with Russia in the past," notes Clark. "Russia provided upper-stage engines for India's GSLV Mk.II rocket until India developed its own engine for the job. And four Indian astronauts slated for the Gaganyaan program completed more than a year of training at Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow in 2021, according to Indian media."
"Despite India's overture toward a closer relationship with NASA, the Asian power remains linked with Russia," adds Clark. "India still imports significant amounts of Russian oil and has not officially condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine."
Reusable (Score:3)
As long as they don't even bother to try to make fully reusable rockets, they'll remain behind. By the way Europe (ESA) is equally blind.
Re:Reusable (Score:5, Insightful)
US: "Join my team and I'll help protect you."
China: "Join my team and I'm going to attack you and steal some of your land."
Which side would you choose?
Re: Reusable (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Reusable (Score:4, Insightful)
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OK, I'll give you one more comment for the morons wasting mod points to tag as 'troll' or 'flamebait' while modding up your abusive, ignorant rant. ...I don't think my country is innocent.
Again, you're ignoring that your nation does awful things with the justification that others do bad things too, and a lot of them do worse.
So fucking what? If I beat the shit out of you, is that OK because other people are committing murders?
Your reasoning is tribal and stupid.
Re:Reusable (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, to be fair the US is more, "Become our vassal state to be economically exploited, and if you're not white we're definitely not going to treat you like equals. However, you also come under the protective umbrella of the American military machine so nobody will ever mess with your borders. Unfortunately, that protection might waver if we turn isolationist again; we already tried to abandon Canada and Europe just this past decade."
Still WAY better than China, though.
LOL. Hindustan had a caste system long before the white man ever found the place, and part of that is based on appearance. Darker skinned signified lower class. The most popular skin creme for women in the Indian market has a skin lightener in it, and until it was renamed recently, it was for years called "Fair and Lovely" [wikipedia.org]. Bollywood actresses bathed in the stuff.
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Just to extrapolate on this seemingly extremely widespread "lighter skin is better" class preference that has been observed in societies all around the world, remember that to this day manual labor requires sun exposure. Maintaining light skin is a sign of wealth and status, because it meant "I didn't have to work outside." For men that likely meant some kind of aristocratic position or high government office. For women it likely meant a family with the wealth and power to keep the woman shielded from phy
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Well, to be fair the US is more, "Become our vassal state to be economically exploited,"
I don't know, the US didn't really retaliate when France dropped out of NATO or broke Bretton Woods.
It's also a similar thing in the south China sea. The US says to the nearby countries, "join our coalition and we'll help protect you." China says, "Join us and give us your resources." Which side are those countries going to join?
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As far as China is concerned, we consider USA a tiny nation, and India a 1.2 billion population don't need protection from USA against another 1.2 billion population country.
hahahahaha
Tell us you have no concept of what modern military weapons do to numerical advantages in personnel without telling us.
USA army don't even know how to fight without guns, they just sit in AC office flying their predator drone, completely unaware of what goes on the world highest battlefield,
You think fighting without guns is a good plan? You think drone strikes don't work? What a noob.
Come out of your dream, that India needs USA support against China
If China invaded India they would have it carved up and already be starting infrastructure projects to help them hold it and profit from it within a year. China has triple India's military budget and none of its internal division.
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drinkypoo:
Tell us you have no concept of what modern military weapons do to numerical advantages in personnel without telling us.
Also drinkypoo:
If China invaded India they would have it carved up and already be starting infrastructure projects to help them hold it and profit from it within a year.
You lecture the Indian about India's warfare capabilities, and in the same argument, seemingly forget that India has nukes too. China could never "carve up India". They'd be busy digging out from under the fallout in Beijing.
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USA army don't even know how to fight without guns, they just sit in AC office flying their predator drone, completely unaware of what goes on the world highest battlefield,
You think fighting without guns is a good plan? You think drone strikes don't work? What a noob.
Historically (for better of for worse), the US has been very actively involved in live wars, both directly in Afghanistan and Iraq and indirectly in Ukraine. The US is currently spending tens of billions of dollars supporting Ukraine. That's not just charity. The US is testing out its weapons, analyzing war strategies, and probing Russian capabilities and tendencies far better than any simulation could do.
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I don't know about probing Russian capabilities. I think we were already pretty clear since the fall of the Soviet Union that their supposed capabilities were far overblown. The current extent of their nuclear capabilities might be relatively unknown, but we already knew they were generally broke and had a lot of crappy old equipment. It's not like they hadn't employed aggression against any weaker neighbors recently.
On the other hand, we are participating in consuming their remaining military resources wit
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Yes, the third largest country by population in the world is "tiny", being a 5,000 year old civilization somehow grants you incites into modern warfare that no one else has, fighting modern wars without guns is somehow a thing, and we suck for having drone systems that let us attack things without putting our own soldiers in harms way (systems both China and India either also have or very much want to have). Your post reads like a dumb shit nationalist's post, all patriotism and no brains.
Also, a small hist
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Regarding Pakistan, if you think Pakistan is protected by USA or China,
I don't think Pakistan is protected by USA or China. I think it's a stupid war between two countries that need to learn to resolve differences peacefully. When India learns to do that, they will be the mature country in the room.
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As for China not attacking neighbor's looking for land or resources, you might want to check with the Vietnamese circa 1979. As for the US working w/ Pakistan, that was about the war on terror, now that we'v
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Also our conflict is only with Pakistan over land.
Oh really? Too bad no one has ever managed to solve a land dispute through negotiations.
Time for India to grow up and stop playing land disputes like the little kids.
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India supports russia. Do you need to know more?
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Do you need to know more?
Yes, what is your point? India buys oil from Russia, they don't support them.
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So what do you call this? Casual reach around?
https://www.tribuneindia.com/n... [tribuneindia.com]
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It's more than that. Those sales are funding this shit show, and they appear to be getting in deeper.
India’s trade volume with Russia has zoomed substantially, largely due to New Delhi purchasing Russian crude after Western markets closed their doors.
“Both leaders agreed to remain in touch and continue to make efforts to further strengthen Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between the two countries,” said the Indian statement.
https://thewire.in/diplomacy/m... [thewire.in]
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India buys oil from Russia, they don't support them.
Buying oil from Russia is supporting them. What do you think Putin does with the oil revenue, buy bouquets of roses for the ladies? I know you're not that naive, so you're just dissembling.
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It's not about science, it's about forging diplomatic ties with India, so they'll join the US against China. It's not really very hard, since China has recently actually attacked India.
US: "Join my team and I'll help protect you."
China: "Join my team and I'm going to attack you and steal some of your land."
Which side would you choose?
It's about technology transfer. The US isn't in any condition to "protect" anyone else. When we commit to doing that, we tend to get bored after a few years and go home. Ask the people of Kabul about our "protection". Hell, look at our whole military record post-WWII. It ain't that great. The Indian government isn't stupid.They just want the rockets and the chips.
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The US isn't in any condition to "protect" anyone else. When we commit to doing that, we tend to get bored after a few years and go home.
How long do you expect us to hold your dick for you?
When shit happens, we will help out -but you gotta get your own shit together eventually.
The Indian government isn't stupid. They just want the rockets and the chips.
India is right. Learn how and do it yourself.
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Well, sort of, and not with any particular urgency.
That page you linked to shows a kind-of reusable vehicle: a mini shuttle like the Dream Chaser or X37-B, sitting on top of a solid rocket. The page indicates it was successfully launched...in 2016...but only for in-atmosphere flight tests, not to orbit. As the acronym indicates, it was a technology demonstrator - not an attempt at an actual reusable vehicle. It splashed
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That's like the space shuttle, I'm talking about reusable to compete with Falcon 9 and Starship.
you will naan go to space today (Score:2)
Designated shitting streets (Score:1)
So how do you decide the designated shitting streets in space?
Welcome to the big conspiracy! (Score:1)
Will they grow rich before they cook? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Good! (Score:2)
The more countries sign on to any treaty proposing peace in space, the better.
There's enough space junk out there as is, adding more to it because of some countries fighting is just suicide to humanity's space ambitions.
Russia already put some suicide drones in space and experimented with it, causing loads of debris which the various space agencies have a hard time tracking. China destroyed one of their own satellites in an experiment with an anti-satellite weapon. Oh, and in space debris keeps whizzing aro
Human space flight program (Score:2)
It’ll be interesting to see what India can accomplish. So far ISRO has done pretty well given their tiny budget. But somewhat safe human space flight is a whole ‘nother ball game.