On December 17, Deputy Secretary Campbell, along with Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer and Indian Ambassador to the United States Vinay Mohan Kwatra, travelled to Houston, Texas, to take stock of the significant progress made in U.S.-India space cooperation in recent months and discuss next steps to further advance our bilateral space partnership.

The officials met with representatives from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), including two ISRO astronauts who are training at NASA Johnson Space Center in preparation to join a proposed mission the International Space Station in 2025. They also discussed plans to launch a jointly developed NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar Earth Science (NISAR) satellite in 2025. The officials also met with representatives from the space industry private sector to explore innovative ways for the U.S. and Indian commercial space sectors to strengthen collaboration, a key priority under the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET).