ESA and ISRO Explore Wider Cooperation in Human Spaceflight, Moon and Venus Missions

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are exploring expanded cooperation in human spaceflight, lunar exploration and planetary science, officials said at the International Space Summit in Paris on September 9-10. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher was expected to meet ISRO Chairman V Narayanan during the summit, with senior officials from both organisations examining where their programmes and technologies could complement one another.

The immediate focus is India's Gaganyaan human-spaceflight programme, which aims to send a three-member crew into a roughly 400-kilometre orbit for three days before returning them safely to Earth. ESA and ISRO have already signed a Technical Implementing Plan under which European ground stations will provide tracking and communication support for Gaganyaan missions, helping maintain contact with the spacecraft when it is outside the visibility of Indian ground stations.

Officials are also discussing cooperation on India's planned Bharatiya Antariksh Station, which is expected to follow the initial Gaganyaan missions, potentially covering astronaut training, life-support systems, mission operations and scientific experiments. Lunar exploration is another prospective area, with both agencies developing capabilities for robotic and human missions around the moon.

The two sides are also examining possible links between ESA's planetary-science objectives and India's Venus Orbiter Mission, the country's first dedicated mission to Venus, approved at a cost of ₹1,236 crore. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch in March 2028 aboard the LVM-3 rocket, take about 112 days to reach Venus, and carry 19 payloads to study the planet's atmosphere, surface processes and interaction with solar radiation. No final agreement on all the proposed areas has been announced.