India-US space cooperation, and an anniversary

A commenter in a post yesterday requested that I “don’t allow your astute observations about the progress of India’s space program get lost in the mix!” This was a reference to another piece in Monday’s issue of The Space Review about changes in India’s space program and how it could affect relations with the US. The article covers a speech late last month by G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian space agency ISRO, at CSIS in Washington. The speech itself didn’t have any terribly new insights, but did nicely encapsulate the changes going on in India’s space program: long focused on practical applications like remote sensing and communications, ISRO is now developing an interest in space exploration. Its first lunar orbiter, Chandrayaan-1, is scheduled for launch in a couple months, and India is making initial plans for a human spaceflight program that could be ready around the mid-2010s.

Does this mean that India will emerge as another competitor to the US in space? Not necessarily. While NASA administrator Mike Griffin mentioned India in passing during a speech last month, after discussing the ambitions of China and Russia, India appears far more interested in cooperation rather than competition. Moreover, US-India relations have been improving over recent years. Also, there’s a certain sense of awe that people like Nair have for US space accomplishments: at the beginning of his speech he said that “talking about space in this country is like talking coal to Newcastle.”

Also, an anniversary note: yesterday marked the fifth anniversary of the very first issue of The Space Review. Had I some sense of history (and planning), I should have had a big anniversary blowout issue, but, well, I let it slip. (No, I’m not married; why do you ask?) I’m more interesting in looking ahead to the next five years than the last five, anyway.