Visitors from NASA to visit ISRO
According to sources the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Thursday said officials of the California Institute of technology (CalTech) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) visited its headquarters and met its Chairman K.Sivan.
In a statement ISRO said: “Professor David Tirrell, Provost of California Institute of technology, USA visited ISRO Headquarters, Bangalore and met K. Sivan, Chairman, ISRO and Secretary, Department of Space (DOS) on September 11, 2019.” Tirrell was accompanied by General Larry James, Deputy Director of JPL and other senior officials from CalTech, ISRO said.
However, the statement is silent on the purpose of the meeting. The Indian space agency will launch a satellite built by the Indian Institute of Space Science and technology (IIST) in collaboration with CalTech. “The IIST is designing a satellite along with California Institute of technology,” Sivan had told IANS early this year. While ISRO has been putting into orbit satellites built by Indian universities and educational institutions since 2009, the non-building of a satellite by IIST was noticeable.