This year, India and the United States of America commemorate forty years of cooperation in space science. In the days to come, significant cooperation between these two countries is expected in civil nuclear, civil space, and high-technology trade. Both countries are also likely to expand the dialogue in the areas of missile defence. The Indo-US space cooperation is expected to go beyond government to government initiatives and the private sector is tipped to play a vital role in expanding this cooperation further.

The recent five-day conference (21-25 June 2004) at Bangalore has played a key role towards strengthening and expanding the Indo-US cooperation in the areas of space science applications.  It provided a common platform for scientists and policy makers to discuss the vast array of issues related to space science, remote sensing, earth observation, satellite communication, satellite navigation, space collaboration and the role of private industry. It was a follow-up to a meeting between former Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and US President George W Bush in November 2001. The initial discussions towards Indo-US space cooperation were held in October 2002 by ISRO and the US State Department and a High Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG) was established in November the same year. This process of cooperation known as the Net Steps in Strategic Partnership is designed to progress through a series of reciprocal steps and this conference was the first major step in that direction.

Indo-US space cooperation has a long history. Within four years of establishment of a full-fledged American space programme, in 1962, India became one of the first partners of NASA and had set up the Equatorial Rocket Launching Station at Thumba on the coast of the Arabian Sea. During 1975-1976, NASA and ISRO had conducted the Satellite Instrumental Television Experiment, known as SITE. Under this program, NASA's ATS-6 satellite beamed educational programmes via television sets to over two thousand remote Indian villages.

Historically, India has been a major trading partner of the US in space technologies. During the 1980s, the US helped India to launch its own satellite telecommunications system – INSAT – with satellites purchased from Ford Aerospace. In 1982 and 1990, the US launched Indian satellites atop American rockets, and in 1983, a US space shuttle deployed an Indian satellite. However, over the last few years, Indo-US relations in areas of space technology had reached low ebb.

Following the Pokhran nuclear tests, the US imposed trade, economic and military sanctions which, in turn, hampered progress at ISRO. The Americans also forced Russia to stop dealing with ISRO on a cryogenic engine contract. Similarly, American agencies blocked all cooperation in areas of supercomputing. The sanctions imposed in these areas slowed the pace of growth of space technologies. However, Indian scientists overcame these difficulties by indigenously designing and developing these systems and the Americans could thus only manage to delay the Indian space programme schedule.

India made remarkable progress in the field of science and technology in spite of global isolation after Pokhran II. The Americans understood that a sanctions regime in the Indian context would not work. Also they could not overlook India’s unblemished record of non-proliferation. Simultaneously, global geopolitics changed radically post 9/11. Most importantly Americans became aware of the scientific and commercial talent available in India in the areas of space technology and information technology. The recent progress of the Indo-US strategic partnership should be viewed against this backdrop.

From the Indian point of view, future collaborations with NASA and the US space industry are important. It is said that NASA may even consider the request for an Indian astronaut. Currently, ISRO is in the final stages of signing a major contract with the US company, Raytheon. The company will help ISRO to install a system that will allow aircrafts to use the US constellation of GPS satellites. ISRO, in collaboration with the Airports Authority of India (AAI), has come up with a system to augment the signals from GPS satellites called "Gagan" (GPS aided geo-augmented navigation). It involves setting ground-based GPS reference stations and a navigational payload on a geo-stationary satellite. Raytheon is expected to set up the entire ground systems and the mission control facility.

It is expected that in near future a clear roadmap would be drawn to bolster Indo-US space ties. A few analysts even called the Bangalore conference a “watershedâ€Â