Washington, May 26: Identifying India as a ‘big partner’ of the US space programme, NASA has applauded the country’s efforts in using its space missions for “societal needs.”
“I think it’s 85 per cent of their budget is spent on what they call societal needs. It’s earth science, climate change, those kinds of things, and they still insist that they’re going to bring about a human space flight programme, you know, by 2020 or so,” NASA Administrator Charles F Bolden said.
Terming India as a big partner of the United States in its space programme, Bolden said “They (India) want that independent ability, but they still want to partner with us.
They came back because they like what we do in terms of earth science and climatology. They like what we do in terms of planetary science. And they want to be a part of that.
–Agencies