Bengaluru, May 25 (KNN) S. Somanath, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), urged major Indian industrial conglomerates to increase their investments and participation in the country's space endeavors, on Friday.

In his keynote address at the US-India Space Cooperation Conference, while acknowledging their substantial contributions across infrastructure, industrial ecosystems, and defense sectors, Somanath emphasised that significant strides by large corporations within the space domain have been lacking thus far.

He cited ISRO's commercial arm, NewSpace India Ltd, inviting domestic industry partners to manufacture India's heaviest rocket, the Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3), as a prime example of facilitating public-private partnerships to scale up production capacities and reduce costs through economies of scale.

Somanath underscored the necessity of international collaboration as India embarks on ambitious space missions, including sending an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station, establishing its own space station by 2035, and achieving a lunar landing. He highlighted the invaluable expertise and legendary leadership that global partners could bring to achieve these critical objectives.

On Friday, the US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, visited ISRO's headquarters and engaged in discussions with Somanath regarding advancing space science, technology, and the space economy through bilateral cooperation. 

Key topics included ongoing joint working groups, the Artemis Accords, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, and the use of Laser Reflectometer Arrays on Chandrayaan-3.

Significant proposals were put forth, such as NASA's potential participation in India's G-20 satellite initiative for environmental and climate change monitoring, a follow-up advanced imaging spectrometer satellite to NISAR, encouraging collaboration between commercial entities from both nations, and exploring the utilisation of the Gaganyaan cargo module for transporting supplies to the International Space Station. Additionally, the US Ambassador proposed the development of a QUAD satellite.

(KNN Bureau)