At Bengaluru Space Expo, US calls for India partnership built on co-creation

At the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor said the country’s space partnership with India had moved from cooperation to “co-creation”.

Opening the US pavilion at the ninth Bengaluru Space Expo on Monday, Gor said governments, space agencies, start-ups and private industry could jointly develop technologies, missions and commercial opportunities. He also repeated NASA’s invitation to ISRO to join its Moon base programme.

The US delegation included Amazon Leo, BlackSky, IONQ (Capella Space), L3 Harris, Viasat and Voyager Technologies, among others. Their presence could give Indian space companies opportunities to explore investment, partnerships and international markets.

Australia and Italy also sent delegations. ISRO chairman V. Narayanan and IN-SPACe chairman Pawan Goenka set out policy and institutional priorities for expanding commercial space activity, while a defence-focused technical session examined surveillance, intelligence and secure communications capabilities.

The expo follows Sergio Gor’s meeting with astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla in Bengaluru on Sunday. Karnataka IT and BT Secretary N. Manjula pointed to the state’s network of start-ups, industry, academic institutions and research centres working on emerging technologies.