Will ISRO be part of NASA’s moonshot?
NASA has invited the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to participate in its Moon Base programme, an extension of the broader Artemis programme aimed at establishing sustained human presence on the Moon.
The invitation builds on the India-US space partnership, which has already delivered the joint NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite mission, and on India's status as a signatory to the Artemis Accords.
The move comes as India continues preparatory work on its own human spaceflight programme, Gaganyaan, and pursues a long-term roadmap toward an Indian space station and a crewed lunar mission.
Formal terms of any ISRO role in the Moon Base programme are yet to be worked out; the invitation marks an early-stage cooperative opening rather than a concluded agreement.
The Artemis Programme and Artemis Accords
The Artemis programme is NASA's initiative to return humans to the Moon and establish a sustainable long-term presence there, serving as a proving ground for eventual crewed missions to Mars. The Artemis Accords, first signed in 2020, are a set of non-binding bilateral principles for civil space exploration and lunar resource use, grounded in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, that countries sign individually with the United States rather than through a single multilateral treaty.
Key Details
- India signed the Artemis Accords on June 21, 2023, becoming one of the accords' signatories at that time (the accords now count dozens of signatory nations, including India).
- Key Artemis Accords principles include transparency in space activities, interoperability of systems, registration of space objects, release of scientific data, and peaceful use of space resources, including safety zones around lunar operations to prevent interference.
- The Artemis Accords are distinct from — and, critics note, arguably in tension with — the 1979 Moon Agreement (which India has not ratified) and the "common heritage of mankind" principle it invokes for lunar resources.
NASA's invitation to ISRO for the Moon Base programme is a direct extension of the cooperative framework India joined via the Artemis Accords in 2023, moving from accord membership toward concrete mission-level collaboration.
NISAR: The India-US Joint Earth-Observation Mission
The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission is a joint Earth-observation satellite using dual-frequency (L-band from NASA, S-band from ISRO) synthetic aperture radar to monitor changes in Earth's land and ice surfaces, launched via an ISRO vehicle. It is cited as the technical foundation and trust-building precedent for the subsequent invitation to the Moon Base programme.
The Moon Base invitation is explicitly framed as building on NISAR's successful joint development and launch, illustrating how bilateral space cooperation typically escalates from joint satellite missions to human-exploration partnerships.
India's Own Human Spaceflight and Lunar Roadmap: Gaganyaan and Beyond
Gaganyaan is India's indigenous human spaceflight programme, intended to demonstrate India's capability to send astronauts to low Earth orbit on an Indian-made launch vehicle and spacecraft, forming the foundation for India's stated long-term goals of an Indian space station and a crewed Moon landing.
Key Details
- The Gaganyaan programme uses a human-rated variant of ISRO's Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3), with the crew module designed for splashdown recovery.
- The Union Government's announced long-term roadmap includes setting up "Bharatiya Antariksh Station" (Indian space station) by 2035 and landing an Indian astronaut on the Moon by 2040.
- Any ISRO role in NASA's Moon Base programme would run parallel to, rather than substitute for, this indigenous human-spaceflight roadmap.
ISRO's potential inclusion in the Artemis Moon Base programme comes at a moment when India is simultaneously building independent human-spaceflight capability through Gaganyaan, positioning India to pursue both collaborative and indigenous pathways to the Moon.
- India signed the Artemis Accords: June 21, 2023.
- Artemis Accords legal basis: grounded in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty; distinct from the 1979 Moon Agreement (unratified by India and the US).
- NISAR: joint NASA-ISRO dual-frequency (L-band/S-band) synthetic aperture radar Earth-observation satellite, launched from India.
- India's human-spaceflight programme: Gaganyaan, using a human-rated ISRO LVM3 launch vehicle.
- Government-announced long-term goals: Indian space station ("Bharatiya Antariksh Station") by 2035; Indian crewed Moon landing by 2040.