US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti spoke to NDTV on a wide range of issues (File)
An Indian astronaut is expected to reach the International Space Station (ISS) this year, US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti told NDTV in an interview.
Giving details of the space mission, Mr Garcetti said the Indian government has also suggested the name of the astronaut who will fly to the ISS on an American mission. He did not reveal the name though.
"So the offer that was made by the President was to put an Indian astronaut on an American mission to go up to the space station this calendar year. And that's still the plan," Mr Garcetti told NDTV.
"It's space, so you never know, can't guarantee that it will happen, but we do expect it to happen. The Indian government has indicated who that astronaut is. I'll let them, you know, announce that at the proper time," the Ambassador told NDTV.
Mr Garcetti said the foundation behind cooperation on sending the Indian astronaut to the ISS is all about maintaining a bilateral relationship that extends from the "seabed to the stars".
"And that evidence will be seen this year, not just with an astronaut that we're going to help put in space, an Indian astronaut, but also a satellite that we hope gets launched this year," Mr Garcetti said.
"NISAR (the satellite) is a collaboration between NASA and ISRO. There is nothing that speaks more about the hopes and aspirations of our people, of our governments, and our relationship than our work together in the space?" Mr Garcetti said.
NISAR is a joint Earth-observing mission with the goal to make global measurements of the causes and consequences of land surface changes using advanced radar imaging, the mission's website says.
As NASA and ISRO discussed the possibility of a joint radar mission, it became clear that this goal was of great interest to the ISRO science community. ISRO identified science and applications that were complementary to the primary mission objectives: agricultural monitoring and characterisation, landslide studies, Himalayan glacier studies, soil moisture, coastal processes, coastal winds, and monitoring hazards.
A second radar frequency was added to the mission to better fulfil these science requirements.
NISAR will be the first satellite mission to use two different radar frequencies (L-band and S-band) to measure changes in the planet's surface less than a centimetre across. The partnership with India has been key to preserving as much science as possible.