Space Cooperation: A historical Background

♤ In 1963 when India first launched a U.S.-manufactured sounding rocket – sometimes called a “research rocket” – from Thumba to study the atmosphere above Earth’s magnetic equator.

♤ In the 1970s, ISRO and NASA conducted the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE). SITE used NASA’s first direct broadcasting satellite to beam television programs to more than 2,400 villages across India.

♤ The first four INSAT satellites were built by U.S. industry, and three of them were put into orbit by U.S. launch vehicles.

♤ Chandrayaan-1, India’s first mission to the moon, was launched successfully in October 2008. The spacecraft carried several scientific instruments built by international partners, including two by NASA.

♤ In September 2014, both nations had spacecraft arrive in Martian orbit. NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN spacecraft – popularly known as MAVEN – arrived at Mars on September 21 and is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the upper atmosphere of Mars. ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission – or MOM – arrived only two days later and made India the first Asian nation to “go to Mars.”