French delegation visits ISRO to further Indo-France space ties
French parliamentarians at ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru city
A delegation of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs of the French National Assembly visited the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) headquarters in India’s southern Bengaluru city on Thursday.
This visit is part of the French delegation's visit to India coordinated by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
On behalf of the Indian Space agency and the Indian government's Department of Space(DoS),Dr R Umamaheswaran, Director of ISRO’s Human Space Flight Centre, briefed the French delegation on the Indian space programme.
The senior scientist highlighted the developments in the Indian Gaganyaan Human Spaceflight programme and the opening up of the space sector in India for private entities.
ISRO said that the visiting French delegation appreciated the long-standing bilateral space cooperation and the opportunities available for the industries in the Indian space sector. The French parliamentary delegation also agreed to work for continued support from the French government for further strengthening the India-France space relations.
India and France have had a long history of cooperation in the space domain. In the 1970s, ISRO and CNES (French space agency) teams worked jointly on developing the Viking engine—a liquid-fuelled rocket engine.
The Indian version of the same is known as the 'Vikas' engine and it continues to be used in the liquid-fuelled stages of India's rockets PSLV, GSLV and LVM3.
Over the years, India and France have also developed satellites such as 'SARAL' (Satellite with ARGOS and ALTIKA), Megha-Tropiques.
The recently launched Indian satellite EOS-6/OceanSat meant for observing and studying the oceans featured a French-origin payload onboard. India and France are also working closely on the Gaganyaan Human Spaceflight programme.
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