On Tuesday, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) administrator Michael Griffin said in Hyderabad that the NASA was seriously thinking to cooperate with Indian space programs such as human space flights. At present, Griffin is in India to attend the International Astronautical Congress organized in Hyderabad.

He said that NASA would cooperate India in the space programs even beyond the International Space Station establishing a research station on Moon. According to him, NASA was open to discuss with India for India’s plan for launching Chandrayaan-II or other Indian missions. NASA was also ready to exchange scientific data for such programs with India.

Earlier, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had announced about the plan to launch its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-XL hopefully in 2008. It has also planned to launch a spacecraft called Chandrayaan-I above the moon. According to the report, the Chandrayaan-I will have two US payloads to look for water and minerals on the lunar surface.

Griffin said that the entire manned space flight program, launched by US, was an International cooperative venture. The US had launched the program in cooperation with 15 other countries. Now, the focus of the space program is to establish an International Space Station on the moon. The NASA top administrator said that he hoped that India would be a possible partner in our next mission to moon.

However, he said that the Indian government had not made any specific proposal to US. He applauded Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair for great contributions in Indian space programs. He also hoped that US would get the opportunity to work with ISRO.

Read