India and Australia have strengthened their space cooperation through a new agreement. The agreement, signed by ISRO and ASA, focuses on crew and module recovery for India’s Gaganyaan missions. This includes Australian support for search and rescue operations in Australian waters, ensuring the safety of India’s first crewed spaceflight program.
Bengaluru. An Implementation Agreement (IA) was signed between Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Australian Space Agency (ASA) on November 20, 2024 for further strengthening cooperation in space activities between Australia and India. The IA enables cooperation between both space agencies on crew and crew module recovery for Gaganyaan missions.
The IA was signed by Mr. DK Singh, Director, HSFC on ISRO side at Bengaluru and Mr. Jarrod Powell, General Manager, Space Capability Branch, on ASA side at Canberra.
ISRO has embarked on the Human Spaceflight “Gaganyaan” programme with an objective of demonstrating human space flight capability to Low Earth Orbit in an Indian Crew Module with up to three crew members for up to three days and safely recovering them after the mission.
The IA enables the Australian authorities to work with Indian authorities to ensure support for search and rescue of crew and recovery of crew module as part of contingency planning for ascent phase aborts near Australian waters.
India and Australia are enduring strategic partners and both space agencies are working closely and are committed to explore current and future collaboration activities. The signing of the IA is another step forward in the cooperation between Indian and Australian space agencies.
