ISRO And European Space Agency (ESA), Reaching For The Stars Together | NDTV Exclusive

In a first an Indian and a European Space Agency’s project astronaut have been training together for the last one year and the two will fly to the International Space Station on the Axiom-4 flight in a few weeks. The mission will feature an Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla flying alongside ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wisniewski, from Poland, and both conducting a record number of scientific experiments during a two-week stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS). In a rare conversation with NDTV, Dr Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), outlined the deepening collaboration between ISRO and ESA as both are cooperating in space exploration, human spaceflight, and satellite launches. A historic joint statement of intent signed this month between ESA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), marks a new chapter in bilateral space cooperation. ESA’s annual budget is estimated to be about $ 7.91 billion compared to ISRO’s budget of $ 1.6 billion.