Aryabhata to Gaganyaan: Russia–India ready to deepen space partnership; comes ahead of Putin’s visit | India News

As Russian president Vladimir Putin begins his three-day visit to India on Thursday, the Russian space agency Roscosmos has suggested that both countries are set to elevate cooperation in the space sector. Roscosmos chief Dmitry Bakanov told Russian newspaper Izvestia that an announcement on space cooperation would be made as soon as “literally the day after tomorrow”. He said the plan covers several joint areas, including engine development, crewed missions, orbital stations, personnel training, and rocket fuel. Bakanov said the partnership would not involve the transfer of Russian technology, but would focus on “mutually beneficial cooperation”. Putin has also spoken about closer ties with India ahead of his visit. He said Moscow wants to take cooperation with New Delhi to “a qualitatively new level” and maintain a detailed economic dialogue.Speaking on Tuesday, the Russian president had said, “We aim to elevate cooperation with the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of India to a qualitatively new level by strengthening its technological component. This is the objective of numerous joint projects in energy, industry, space, agriculture, and other sectors.” Speaking at an investment forum in Moscow, Putin said ongoing joint projects in energy, industry, space, agriculture, and other areas are aimed at strengthening the partnership.The Russian president is visiting India for the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mutual ground stations

Earlier it was reported that Russia and India were working on the mutual deployment of ground stations for their navigation satellite systems, GLONASS and NavIC, for enhanced accuracy.“Work is underway on the mutual parity placement of ground stations for collecting measurements of the Russian global navigation satellite system GLONASS and the Indian regional navigation satellite system NavIC,” Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov was quoted as saying by the state-run TASS news agency in November.

Russia has played a key role in India’s space journey, starting from the launch of Aryabhata in 1975, India’s first satellite, which was sent into orbit aboard a Soviet rocket. Over the decades, Russian support continued through technology sharing, joint missions, and training of Indian scientists and astronauts. This collaboration reached a new milestone with the Gaganyaan programme, India’s first human spaceflight mission, where Russian astronauts for Isro’s groundbreaking human spaceflight initiative, Gaganyaan, underwent comprehensive training at Russia’s Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, a historical centre where Rakesh Sharma, India’s pioneer in space, had previously trained in 1984.