Grand Ashoka, Bangalore, India
June 21-25, 2004

Background to Press

The India-United States Conference on Space Science, Applications & Commerce is being organised by the Astronautical Society of India (ASI) and the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA). The conference is sponsored by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum and the US Department of State in cooperation with the US Department of Commerce, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The main objective of the conference is to strengthen and expand the cooperation between India and the US in the field of space science and applications as well as related commercial activity.

Genesis

The Prime Minister of India and the President of United States issued a Joint Statement in November 2001 that both sides would discuss ways to stimulate bilateral high technology commerce and civil space cooperation. In October 2002, ISRO and the US State Department held initial discussions on possible methods of strengthening cooperation in these two areas. With encouragement of other government agencies in India as well as the US and with extensive support from industry, professional societies such as ASI in India and AIAA and organisations such as the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum, both countries decided to hold a high level conference in India that could act as a catalyst for strengthening cooperation. The main objective would be to bring together US and Indian space scientists, policy makers and private entrepreneurs to explore cooperative programmes and business opportunities. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the Astronautical Society of India (ASI) were chosen to organise the conference.

A US delegation represented by the US Embassy in New Delhi, AIAA and NOAA visited Bangalore in February 2004 to finalise the programme for the conference. To ensure strong participation from industry in both countries, industry level discussions were also held between India's Antrix Corporation and US-India Business Council along with the participation of the Confederation of Indian industries.

Indo-US Cooperation in Space

The Indo-US cooperation in the area of space dates to the start of Indian space programme. The Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS), established in the early 60s, received assistance from the US through the supply of equipment and sounding rockets for carrying out scientific experiments. The very first sounding rocket, a Nike-Apache launched from Thumba on November 21, 1963 was a US made rocket that carried instruments to conduct ionospheric experiments over the earth's magnetic equator that passes over Thumba.

India conducted the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) in the mid 1970s for which NASA moved its Application Technology Satellite (ATS-6) over the Indian Ocean. SITE involved deployment of Direct Reception TV sets in about 2400 villages across six states of India to receive educational programmes via ATS-6, covering agriculture, family planning, health and hygiene, etc. The experiment was hailed as the world's largest sociological experiment. This played a significant role to demonstrate the application of satellites for TV-based developmental education and telecommunication for a large country like India. This was followed by the establishment of the multipurpose Indian National Satellite, INSAT, System in the 80s. Today, INSAT has become the largest domestic satellite systems in the Asia Pacific region. India procured all four satellites under the INSAT-1 series from a US company and three were launched by US built vehicles.

In the field of remote sensing, India was one of the first countries to establish a reception station for receiving data from NASA's Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS), later renamed as LANDSAT. This venture helped India to gain first hand experience in the reception, processing and application of space-based remote sensing data. A number of joint experiment projects in remote sensing were also undertaken using the LANDSAT data with the participation of end users. These efforts helped India decide to design and build its own operational Indian Remote Sensing satellites (IRS) and establish National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS) for the application of data from these satellites. Today, India has the world's largest constellation of remote sensing satellites to provide data in a variety of spatial resolutions and spectral bands which is being received by several ground stations from all over the world including USA that meet the requirements of various applications in resources management.

In 1997, the Department of Space (DOS) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) from India and NASA and NOAA from the US signed a Memorandum of Understanding for joint research in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

The Bangalore Conference

The India-US conference being held in Bangalore during June 21-25, 2004 will focus on strengthening and expanding cooperation. Both India and USA have a successful history of space activities and have their own strengths. There have been a number of instances of successful cooperation. This background augurs well for exploring future cooperative and collaborative ventures for mutual benefit. This conference serves as a major step in this direction.

Conference Topics

The topics have been identified after detailed discussions with experts from both sides.

• Earth Observation Science, Technology and Applications (4 sessions)
• Satellite Communications Technology and Applications (3 sessions)
• Satellite Navigation and Applications (2 sessions)
• Space Science (3 sessions)
• Natural Hazards Research and Disaster (1 session)
• Space Commerce (2 Plenaries)

In all there will be 148 presentations spread over 15 sessions with 70 speakers from India and about 78 from the US.

Participation

The organisations that will be represented from the US are:

• Government - the US Embassy in India, - the Department of State, Department of Commerce, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the US Department of Agriculture, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration, the US Agency for International Development and the National Science Foundation.
• Private Industries - Boeing, Raytheon, Panamsat, Intelsat, Trimble, Honeywell, Northrop Grumman, Space System Loral, Worldspace, Space Imaging, Digital Globe, Orbimage, ESRI, ERDAS, Qualcomm, Overland, HP and Viasat.
• Academia - University of Texas, George Mason University, California Institute of Technology, University of California, University of Wisconsin, University of Arizona, University of Cincinnati and University of Colorado.

High level dignitaries such as the US Ambassador to India, Under Secretary of Commerce, the Deputy Administrator of NASA, the Deputy Under Secretary of NOAA and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State are expected to participate in the conference. Similarly, CEOs of several of the companies have also enquired about possible participation.

From India, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office and very high level officials from the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Commerce, Department of Space, Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Urban Development, Department of Bio-Technology, Department of Science & Technology, Department of Ocean Development, Department of Land Resources, Airport Authority of India, Antrix Corporation, IGNOU, Care Health Foundation, INRIMT, Speck systems, RMSI, Godrej, Bharat Electronics, Hindustan Aeronautics, National Aerospace Laboratories, Centre for the Development of Advanced Computing and various universities will participate in the conference.

A total of approximately 400 delegates are expected to participate in the conference out of which over 150 participants are from the USA.

Exhibition