Will ISRO be part of NASA’s moonshot?
NASA has invited ISRO to participate in its Artemis 'Moon Base' program, marking a significant step in deepening space cooperation between the two nations. Meanwhile, ISRO is preparing for the GSLV-F17 mission following recent testing of new rocket booster technology.
Why it matters
This collaboration signals India's growing influence in international space exploration and its strategic alignment with U.S. space initiatives.
A year after the launch of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission and the Axiom-4 mission that sent astronaut-candidate Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla to the International Space Station, the U.S. space agency has formally extended an invitation to India to join its ambitious ‘Moon Base’ programme under the Artemis Accords.
At the ninth meeting of the India-U.S. Civil Space Joint Working Group in Bengaluru, NASA invited the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to be part of this programme, through which it is looking to establish a lunar outpost — potentially the first of its kind where astronauts will make the moon’s south pole area their home, where they will live, work, and conduct scientific activities over the next decade, perhaps beyond.
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