Isro chief calls for deeper tech partnership between India & US

Bengaluru: Isro chairman V Narayanan on Monday called for deeper technology partnership between India and the US, saying space must remain a shared domain that serves ordinary citizens across the world, stressing on how India’s space programme was rooted more in cooperation than competition.Speaking at the US-India Space Business Forum, organised by the US Consulate General-Chennai and the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), he traced the six-decade journey of India’s space programme and said early US support helped shape its foundations.Narayanan recalled that India’s first sounding rocket in 1963 flew with assistance from the US and France, marking the beginning of long cooperation. The programme, he said, was never meant to compete with any nation but to bring advanced technology to the common man of India. “Today, that vision has widened to include the common man of the global community,” he said.Narayanan pointed to milestones such as the 1975 Satellite Instructional Television Experiment, enabled by US’ ATS-6 satellite, he cited the joint discovery of water molecules on the Moon during Chandrayaan-1 and recent cooperation for the Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar (Nisar) satellite.He described the Dec 2025 launch of US commercial Bluebird Block-2 satellite as a moment of trust in Indian capability. “The 5,900-kg spacecraft, the heaviest lifted from Indian soil, was placed with less than 2km of orbital dispersion. It showed what India and the US can achieve together,” he said.Janice Starzik, Deputy Director of the US Office of Space Commerce, said the partnership had moved beyond technology to shaping markets. “We are not here just to discuss technology. We are here to build the marketplace. And there is no partnership as critical as that of the future of the United States and India space partnerships,” she said, referring to the Trust Initiative launched last year to align cooperation in space, semiconductors and secure supply chains.India’s space reforms and expanding private sector have opened a new chapter in commercial cooperation with the US, Space Swarnashree Rao Rajashekar, joint secretary, department of space said, urging industry on both sides to identify barriers that still slow business engagement.Swarnashree, who’s also India co-chair of the sub-working group on space commerce under the US–India Civil Space Joint Working Group, said cooperation between the two countries had deepened sharply between 2023 and 2026, aided by India’s Space Policy 2023, the IN-SPACe regulatory framework and Washington’s push for public–private partnerships. Looking ahead, Narayanan outlined PM Modi’s goals of building an Indian space station by 2035 and carrying out a crewed lunar mission by 2040. India would need a new generation rocket with nearly 100-tonne lift capacity, he said, arguing that such ambitions demanded wider international collaboration rather than isolated effort.He stressed the growing role of industry and start-ups, noting that more than 450 Indian companies now contribute to missions and that 320 start-ups have entered the sector since reforms in 2020. About 75% of the budget of a launch vehicle flows to domestic industry.Inviting American firms to invest and build in India, Narayanan said the govt framework was flexible and supportive. “We are ready to hand-hold and be partners in any programme,” he said, closing with the message that space should benefit every citizen of the globe.