European Space Agency explores possibilities of sending astronaut to India's space station in future
The European Space Agency (ESA) is looking at future possibilities of sending an astronaut to India's planned space station, the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS).
'Future cooperation possibilities include ESA astronaut flight opportunities to the planned BAS and early scientific utilisation as well as developing infrastructure in low earth orbit,' ESA said.
India plans to set up BAS by 2035. Recently, ESA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) signed a joint statement of intent on cooperation for human space exploration focusing on low earth orbit, and in a secondary stage on the moon.
'ESA and ISRO declared their intent to work together on the interoperability of rendezvous and docking systems to allow their respective spacecraft to work together in low earth orbit. They will also examine further activities related to astronaut training, analogue space missions – where teams test aspects of space missions in ground-based simulations – and parabolic flight activities,' it said.
It further said that the joint statement will open the door for joint research and utilisation activities for the future in low earth orbit through the use of common standards. This could include joint research through existing projects or European space research being carried out on the Indian POEM platforms, which use the spent upper stage of a polar satellite launch vehicle as a temporary orbital platform.
The two space agencies are also discussing alignment on payloads and robotic scientific missions to the moon. 'Such activities would be governed by specific agreements to be established,' the agency said.
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