Context:  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will collaborate to place an Indian astronaut on the International Space Station(ISS) by 2024.

NASA to Train an Indian Astronaut for ISS Mission

• US Senator visit to India: The partnership between NASA and the ISRO was announced by the US senator Bill Nelson during his visit to India.
  • The visit follows the signing of the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) treaty by India and US expanding collaboration on emerging space technologies.
  • The iCET seeks to position India and US as “trusted technology partners” to build supply chains and support the co-production and co-development of items.
• Human space flight collaboration: A joint working group on human spaceflight collaboration has been established by ISRO and NASA to collaborate on human space flight missions and other space research projects.
• NISAR: The India-US space collaboration will also work on the Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar (Nisar).
  • The satellite’s capabilities were integrated at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California and testing is currently taking place at the U.R. Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru.

What is NISAR?

• About: NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) is a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) observatory being jointly developed by NASA and ISRO. 
• Purpose: NISAR will map the entire globe in 12 days and provide spatially and temporally consistent data for understanding changes in Earth’s ecosystems.
• Radar: It uses dual-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) with bands L and S to capture high-resolution data across wide areas. 
• Payload: NASA is responsible for providing the L-Band SAR payload system and the ISRO will supply the S-Band SAR payload.
• Launch vehicle: NISAR will be launched into orbit by the Launch Vehicle Mark-III(LVM3)
• LVM3 is a three-stage medium-lift launch vehicle developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

For more information related to ISS, refer ISS

Also Read:  Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET)

News Source: Live Mint