BANGALORE: Michael Griffin, Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), U.S., said here on Tuesday that the recent visit by U.S. President George W. Bush to India had greatly contributed to the possibility of increased cooperation between the two countries.

He was talking to presspersons after signing a memorandum of understanding with G. Madhavan Nair, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), on carrying two U.S. payloads on Chandrayaan-1 (mission to the moon).

On the possibility of lifting the sanctions imposed on some Indian space facilities by Washington, Mr. Griffin said he was "sorry about it" and that he would use his "good offices" to see it was done.

"I am sorry about the past but I will certainly take back a good word about Indian space capabilities and technical capabilities. I am very impressed."

Three space facilities including the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre and the Sriharikota launch centre of the ISRO continue to be on the U.S. entity list.

Avoiding duplication

Mr. Griffin will visit the facility at Thiruvananthapuram and Sriharikota during his trip. This is the first trip by a NASA Administrator to India in three decades.

He said the NASA and the ISRO were looking to avoid duplication of work and to see that the two space agencies were not spending resources on the same thing. "We are looking at what are the areas where we can increase cooperation between our countries so that we are both not spending on the same length."

India for collaboration

Mr. Nair said India was looking towards collaborative efforts to avoid duplication of efforts, especially in areas such as earth observation and space sciences.

He said the organisation had received 16 proposals from around the world to be a part of the lunar mission. "Of these, we selected six instruments including the two from the U.S."

No seats available

Mr. Griffin said there would be no space for an Indian astronaut on a U.S. space shuttle for at least another eight years."We will be happy to train an astronaut. But we cannot promise a flight for that astronaut. We will have to wait until we start designing a new exploration vehicle," he said at a press conference after signing a memorandum of understanding between NASA and ISRO.

Mr. Griffin said crew members, including several from other foreign space agencies, had already been decided for the next 17 space missions over the next four years. "We have some existing agreements with other foreign agencies. So there are no seats available for sometime," he said. As a result, he added, "India has decided not to invest in the training opportunity."

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which is having an internal debate on the feasibility of sending a man to space, will decide in a year whether it is planning to undertake a manned mission.

ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair said ISRO was going through a process of evaluation on the manned mission. "Perhaps we will take a year or so to take a decision on whether we need to have a manned mission or not," he said.

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