How significant is the US participation in Chandrayaan-1, India's moon project? Isn't this the first time a US payload will be aboard an Indian space vehicle?
I believe that is true -- this is the first time, and I am delighted. It was a competitive process, and so I am glad a US payload successfully competed to be aboard the instruments suite on Chandrayaan-1. It's terrific that ISRO is carrying out this mission. It's very symbolic of the kind of cooperation that I would like to see between India and the United States going forward, in space.
Have you any indication from ISRO as to when it will finally take place? You were, I understand, hoping it was going to be sometime this month.
Loosely speaking, in June is what I am hearing. I want Chandrayaan-1 to launch when it's ready, (and) not because we reach a date on the calendar.
I understand the US payload, which you say is symbolic of future cooperation, comprises some very important instrumentation that NASA is getting together...
It is not symbolic. It's a scientific investigation. The payload is synthetic aperture radar that will help detect the presence of water and ice on the moon and the poles, if indeed it exists.
During your interaction with ISRO Chairman Dr Madhavan Nair at the Kennedy Space Centre, when he visited the US in January-February, you signed a new framework agreement establishing the terms of future cooperation between ISRO and NASA in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes. How far do you hope to take this agreement, and is the US-India space cooperation now institutionalised?
The purpose of a framework agreement is to institutionalise the possibilities for cooperative activities on successive missions without having to go back to our parent authorities each time. To get the first framework agreement through requires that I work with the White House and State Department and other entities in the US government, and I am sure that Dr Nair has similar constraints. But once we have commissioned for the framework agreement, then we can conduct if India does Chandrayaan-2 and if we are able to compete successfully for a payload aboard Chandrayaan that’s covered in the framework agreement.
And, similarly, if we want to fly an Indian instrument on an American mission, that is also covered. So, the purpose of the framework agreement is to institutionalise a certain level of cooperation.
Photo courtesy: http://www.isac.gov.in
Also read: Sunita Williams in Space
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