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Stepping up collaboration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Administrator Bill Nelson on Tuesday said the US was open to helping India build its own space station. 

On a visit to India, Nelson said the US and India were working on plans to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station by the end of next year, while the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch the state-of-the-art joint venture satellite with NASA — NISAR — in the first quarter of 2024.

Nelson met Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh here and discussed strengthening cooperation between the two countries in the space sector.

“ISRO is also exploring the feasibility of utilising NASA’s Hypervelocity Impact Test (HVIT) facility for testing Gaganyaan module Micrometeoroid and orbital debris (MMOD) protection shields,” an official statement from the science and technology ministry said.

During the meeting, the two leaders also discussed US President Joe Biden’s offer to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station in 2024.

“The selection of astronaut is determined by ISRO. NASA will not make the selection,” Nelson said in an interaction with reporters here.

Nelson urged Singh to expedite the programme related to India’s first astronaut aboard a NASA rocket to the International Space Station.

NASA is identifying an opportunity in the private astronaut mission for Indian astronauts in 2024.

In response to a question, he said the US would be ready to collaborate with India in building the space station if it so desires.

“We expect by that time to have a commercial space station. I think India wants to have a commercial space station by 2040. If India wants us to collaborate with them, of course, we will be available. But that’s up to India,” Nelson said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked ISRO to aim to build an Indian space station by 2035 and land astronauts on the moon by 2040.

Built at a cost of $1.5 billion (nearly Rs. 12,500 crore), NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) is targeted for launch onboard India’s GSLV rocket.

Data from NISAR will be highly suitable for studying the land ecosystems, deformation of solid earth, mountain and polar cryosphere, sea ice, and coastal oceans on a regional to global scale.

ISRO has developed the S-band SAR which was integrated with NASA’s L-band SAR at JPL/NASA. The integrated L & S band SAR is currently undergoing testing with the satellite at the U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), Bengaluru with the participation of NASA/JPL officials.

An official statement said ISRO and NASA have formed a Joint Working Group (JWG) on Human spaceflight cooperation and are exploring cooperation in radiation impact studies, micrometeorite and orbital debris shield studies; space health, and medicine aspects.

ISRO is also in discussion with prominent US industries (like Boeing, Blue Origin, and Voyager) on specific items of cooperation and also to explore joint collaborations with Indian commercial entities.

A concept paper on the Implementing Arrangement is under consideration between ISRO and NASA. After a few iterations, both sides arrived at a mutually agreed draft and the same is processed for intra-governmental approvals, the official statement said. 

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Crew-10 Astronauts Begin Return from ISS Aboard SpaceX Dragon

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August 7, 2025

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Crew-10 Astronauts Begin Return from ISS Aboard SpaceX Dragon

SpaceX’s Crew-10 mission coming to an end; 4 astronauts to return from International Space Station on Aug. 7, 2025 Almost five months into the mission, the crew — NASA’s Anne McClain (commander) and Nichole Ayers, JAXA’s Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos’s Kirill Peskov — were flying over Mongolia when a workload scenario was suddenly imposed including an emergency descent. They are scheduled to board their Crew Dragon capsule, Endurance, on Thursday Aug. 7 and undock at 12:05 p.m. EST for their return home. The journey back is expected to take approximately 24 hours, with touchdown off the California coast coming Friday morning.

Undocking and Return Schedule

According to NASA, the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Endurance is set to undock from the ISS’s Harmony module at 12:05 p.m. EDT on Aug. 7, 2025. NASA will broadcast the departure live, beginning with hatch closure in the morning. After undocking, the capsule will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere on a mostly autonomous flight. It should splash down in the Pacific Ocean off California by about 11:58 a.m. EDT Friday.

The full trip home takes roughly 24 hours overall. NASA notes the schedule could shift if bad weather affects the landing zone. If all goes according to plan, a news conference will follow at 1:30 p.m. EDT on Friday.

Crew and Mission Summary

The Crew Dragon Endurance launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket on March 14, 2025 during SpaceX’s Crew-10 mission. Crew members at the ISS, the four-member team docked on March 16. The photo was taken in Kazakhstan, with US astronauts Anne McClain (crew commander) and Nichole Ayers (pilot); Japan’s Takuya Onishi; Russia’s Kirill Peskov.

They also spent almost five months working together on science experiments and station maintenance. The crew conducted a variety of experiments from cellular biology to new camera technologies during their mission. They had a small goodbye ceremony on the ISS on Aug. 5 They have been replaced by the Crew-11 team who came in on Aug. 2 to start a new tour of duty.

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Earth’s Oldest Impact Crater Turns Out to Be Much Younger Claims New Study

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August 6, 2025

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Earth’s Oldest Impact Crater Turns Out to Be Much Younger Claims New Study

A location in Western Australia that used to be named as the oldest meteorite impact crater on Earth is now actually a lot younger than that, scientists announced today in Science Advances. The structure — previously dated to 3.5 billion years ago and located within Western Australia’s North Pole Dome region of the Pilbara — was believed to be older than any of Earth’s known impact craters. Today, new research published in the journal Geochemistry found that what we now call the Miralga impact structure is, in fact, much younger, at 2.7 billion years old, and considerably smaller in diameter. This recasts earlier ideas on the early Earth’s geological activity and questions previous theories regarding impact-driven crust formation or perhaps even early life.

Miralga Crater Loses Oldest Impact Title but Gains New Scientific Relevance

As per The Conversation article republished by Space.com, the teams that explored the crater could only point to one thing that was likely — it had been formed by an impact. However, they ultimately disagreed as to whether this event had been and how large it was. Younger rocks contain shatter cones, indicating Earth’s early continental geology shielded the impact to a specific 2.7 billion-400 million-year period despite earlier assertions.

They made the determination to honour the cultural revision of one site from 100 km across to a more manageable 16 km wide crater named Miralga. It’s the site – still affected by seawater – of events too recent to influence the Earth’s crust.

The Miralga basalt feature (unique to basalt) is a rare site for an instrument to practice on before heading to Mars, while advancing our understanding of impacts and early life prospects.

Isotopic dating to clarify the crucial part played by this, the oldest crater on Earth and unique in a geological sense, in planetary science and early Earth history is presently ongoing at Miralga.

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NASA’s TRACERS Satellites Begin Solar Wind Study Despite SV1 Glitch

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August 6, 2025

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NASA's TRACERS Satellites Begin Solar Wind Study Despite SV1 Glitch

NASA’s TRACERS mission twin satellites were launched on July 23, 2025, to study how solar activity causes magnetic reconnection in Earth’s atmosphere. After launch, a power subsystem anomaly had affected one of the satellites (Space Vehicle 1, SV1) on July 25, causing periodic communication loss. NASA said satellite 2 (Space Vehicle 2, SV2) is “healthy,” and transition is beginning to the instrument commissioning phase. The idea behind TRACERS was to develop a complete toolkit that would allow us, for the first time, to observe all of these complex solar wind connection processes at once. NASA engineers are actively working to recover SV1. Single vector views (SV2) spacecraft are completing a healthy checkout and readying themselves for their science mission.

Recovery Efforts for SV1 Satellite

According to NASA, controllers detected a problem with SV1’s power subsystem in late July that led to intermittent contacts and a loss of communication. Data suggest SV1 can only remain active when its solar panels receive sufficient sunlight. Because of the spacecraft’s current orientation, engineers plan to wait until later in August — when SV1’s panels will receive more sun — to reestablish contact and continue recovery steps.

Meanwhile, mission teams are reviewing onboard data to diagnose the issue and plan next steps. Any time contact is regained, the team will assess SV1’s status and check for impacts on the mission’s science goals. For now, no significant updates on SV1 are expected for several weeks.

SV2 Operational Status

The mission’s other satellite, SV2, is in good health and fully operational. Mission teams have been testing SV2’s onboard instruments and systems through a standard commissioning process. This checkout is proceeding as expected, with NASA anticipating that commissioning will finish by the end of August.

Once SV2 is fully checked out, it will begin coordinated science operations with its twin to study magnetic reconnection – the process that shapes how solar activity affects Earth’s magnetic environment. For now, SV2 continues its planned tests and will soon be ready to collect valuable science data as part of the TRACERS mission.

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