NISAR is a remarkable example of space collaboration

Set for lift-off, this NASA-ISRO satellite aligns well with India's strategic focus on near-earth opportunities

- NARAYAN RAMACHANDRAN

Earlier this month, Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla returned to Earth after spending 18 days in space. He is only the second Indian to have been to space and piloted the SpaceX Dragon with its Axiom-4 crew to the International Space Station (ISS) and back. While this mission was commercially arranged, the activities and experiments that Shukla conducted will aid India in its Gaganyaan human space-flight programme in the coming years.

Gaganyaan 1 and 2 are expected to place unmanned crafts in low-earth orbit that will be launched in late 2025 and 2026, respectively. Gaganyaan 3 is expected to launch a crewed craft later in 2026 or early 2027. Shukla himself was trained both at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Moscow and subsequently at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.