Chandrayaan marks new beginning in Indo-US ties: USIBC

"The United States and India are cooperating at this level of space exploration marks the beginning of a whole new era of trust and partnership. The Chandrayaan lunar mission will lead to exciting scientific advances," USIBC President Ron Somers said at a gathering of American businessmen and governmental officials honouring the chairman of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) G Madhavan Nair.

President Bush's vision for partnership with India in space exploration will get a major boost in April 2008 when India's first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan I, launches from Tamil Nadu, he said.

Chandrayaan - for the first time in the history of both countries - will carry a payload atop an Indian rocket that includes two critical NASA instruments to map the moon, the USIBC said in a statement.

"Chandrayaan-I signifies the best example of technological excellence. The strides that the US and India can make together as partners in space will advance tele-medicine, tele-education, and disaster preparedness and management. Indian scientists deserve our heartiest congratulations," Somers added.

ISRO Chairman was in Washington for talks with the US officials, including NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, to coordinate final details of the lunar mission, scheduled for late April.

Nair, complimenting the relationship between the ISRO and NASA, said "the cooperation between the US and India, supporting the Chandrayaan mission, is just a sample of what can be accomplished together as partners."

It may be recalled that on January 2004, the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership(NSSP) was announced by US President George W Bush and then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The NSSP Initiative called for cooperation between the United States in High Technology, in Civilian Nuclear Activities, and in Civilian Space programmes.

"The Chandrayaan-I lunar mission Indias first-ever Mission to the Moon is the fructification of this vision" the premier business advocacy group has pointed out.

The mission to the moon will carry two NASA payloads - a Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar to map ice deposits in the moon's surface and a Moon Mineralogy Mapper to assess mineral resources of the Moon.

"Thinking back to Apollo 11 in July 1969 when all eyes were on the black and white images of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon, the Chandrayaan I Mission marks an historic first in terms of Indo-US space cooperation," Somers said.