MOSCOW – India and Russia have signed a lunar exploration agreement calling on the countries to jointly
develop a robotic orbiter and lander that would launch together in 2013.
The accord
was signed Monday in Moscow by Anatoly Perminov, director of the Russian Space
Agency, or Roskosmos, and Gopalan Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space
Research Organisation.
"This
is a very interesting project," Perminov said in a press release posted
Nov. 12 on the Roskosmos Web site. "Russia and India will be developing a
spacecraft jointly."
According
to an ISRO statement released today, the new moon lander will be dubbed
Chandrayaan-2. India's first lunar probe, the Chandrayaan-1
orbiter, is slated to launch in April 2008, ISRO officials said.
The lunar
lander would include a research laboratory and a rover, according to the
Roskosmos press release. Both the lander and orbiter would be integrated as a
single payload to be launched by India's Geostationary
Satellite Launch Vehicle, the press release said.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin singled out the accord during Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh's visit to Moscow on Monday.
"We
plan to continue our cooperation in such high-tech spheres,
as telecommunications and exploration of space," Putin told reporters
during a joint press conference with Singh, according to the Kremlin's official
Web site.
Meanwhile,
ISRO officials said preparations for the launch of Chandrayaan-1 are going
well. The moon orbiter is set to launch atop an Indian-built Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle and carry at least two NASA instruments to explore
the lunar surface.
Chandrayaan-1
will also carry a Moon Impact Probe to demonstrate the technology required for
pinpoint lunar landings, ISRO officials said Wednesday.
SPACE.com
staff writer Tariq Malik contributed to this report from New York City.
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