The head of the U.S. space agency will travel to India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a series of meetings beginning Monday with key government officials.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will meet with space officials in both countries to deepen bilateral cooperation across a broad range of innovation and research-related areas, especially in human exploration and Earth science.
The visit to India fulfills a commitment through the United States and India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology spearheaded by President Joe Biden, NASA said in a news release.
Nelson will visit several locations in India, including the Bengaluru-based facilities where the NISAR spacecraft is undergoing testing and integration for launch in 2024.
NISAR, or NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, is a joint Earth-observing mission between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Indian Space Research Organization.
As the first satellite mission between the space agencies of India and the United States, NISAR is a revolutionary Earth-observing instrument. The first in the Earth System Observatory, that will measure Earth’s changing ecosystems, dynamic surfaces, and ice masses. It will provide information about biomass, natural hazards, sea level rise, and groundwater, key information to guide efforts related to climate change, hazard mitigation, agriculture, and more.
While in the UAE, Nelson will participate in the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, highlighting NASA’s role as a global leader in providing decision makers with critical Earth-science data. It will be the first time a NASA administrator will have attended the conference.
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