A former NASA official, Mike Gold, said that India is a "sleeping giant" for whom the sky is no longer the limit. He added that the partnership between India and the US is absolutely critical on Earth and Space.
The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) programme is a joint project between NASA and ISRO aimed at developing and launching a dual-frequency synthetic aperture radar on an earth observation satellite. It is a mission to monitor and investigate climate change.
"The relationship between the United States and India is absolutely critical on earth, and possibly even more so in space. India will soon become the fourth country to be able to launch its citizens into space and is therefore a global leader in the field," he said. Gold is currently the Chief Growth Officer of Florida-based Redwire Space.
"India is going to the moon with a lunar rover, and India is going to the Sun. I think that's wonderful synergy and balance between both the Sun and a Moon mission that India is conducting. And of course, the Gaganyaan mission, the first crew mission that it's conducting. India has also been extraordinarily innovative relative to implementing these very ambitious space programmes at affordable and low costs," he added.
The former associate administrator for Space Policy and Partnerships at NASA said that he hopes space exploration will be one of the major areas of discussion between PM Modi and US President Joe Biden next week.
Gold said that in the new world of commercial space, it is not enough to execute programmes but projects need to be affordable, robust, and still successful. He said India is successfully leveraging its incredible human capital. "It is not rocket fuel that gets missions to space but people and India excels in its people. It's got an incredible human capital base that I believe is what's allowing India, certainly in part, to be able to execute these ambitious missions in an affordable, effective, and timely fashion."
"India has been leading the way, certainly from a government perspective, in terms of enacting these bold visions and programmes in a fashion that has been very affordable, particularly relative to what occurs in the West," he further said.
Speaking to PTI, he said NISAR is absolutely vital and it is an example of how India and the US together can literally save the world with information. "As India moves forward into crew operations, that's where I hope we can build upon the foundation of collaborations like NISAR in the scientific field to build broad and deep relationships. In human space flight. I hope that NASA can cooperate and coordinate with ISRO as much as possible to support India's human space flight goals in the US generally."
The former NASA official also hopes to see Indian astronauts in the International Space Station. "There is an incredible opportunity to partner with India because while human space flight is critical and important, wonderful for exploration, inspiration and for science, it requires a destination and a place to go to."
Speaking about the India-US partnership, he said: "As we look at where the Indian and US relationship will evolve, it can begin with partnerships with NASA and what's occurring with the ISS, but in parallel to that, we should be having discussions now between private sector entities and ISRO in regards to leveraging the new wave of commercial space stations that will eventually succeed the ISS."
Gold is considered to be the architect of the Artemis Accord - a set of agreements that lay out a framework for responsible exploration of the moon. He said he hopes India also joins it.
"Part of the reason that it's absolutely vital for India to execute the accords is because India is already going to the moon. India is a lunar country. The purpose of the accords is to ensure that we have a peaceful and prosperous future in space," he said.
His current workplace Redwire Space is in discussions with an Indian company to explore partnerships in manufacturing. "India has amazing amounts of human capital, of manufacturing capacity that when applied to commercial space could be transformative, not just for India, but for the entire commercial space sector. I think any company that isn't engaged in dialogues to explore potential operations in India is foolish and will regret not doing so."
However, he highlighted that bureaucracy is a barrier many commercial space companies have faced in India.
"There have been challenges relative to the amount of bureaucracy to access public-private partnerships or to work with Indian entities, which is why the reforms and current regulations are so welcome. The only thing holding back India is India. For India to then open up entrepreneurialism, the opportunities for global partnerships in commercial space that I think is going to be transformative, said Gold."