New Delhi (The Hawk): Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today said Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) of Government of India has signed 04 (four) cooperative documents specifically to collaborate in space exploration in the last five years.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the agreement with the USA is for accommodating USA instruments in India’s Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3. He informed that the agreement with Japan is to conduct feasibility study for a joint lunar polar exploration mission, while with UK for conducting feasibility study for collaboration in future space science missions. Dr Jitendra Singh also informed that Department of Space of Government of India provides training and capacity building in space science related technology including satellite services to neighboring small countries and other space-aspiring countries of the world. He said, India and Bhutan collaborated on the development of INDIA-BHUTANSAT Satellite carrying into payloads NanoMX, an optical imaging payload developed by ISRO and APRS-Digipeater, jointly developed by DITT, Bhutan and ISRO. The said satellite has been successfully placed in orbit on 26.11.2022. A communication satellite ‘South Asia Satellite’ was dedicated by India to South Asian Countries in 2017.