International cooperation is a strategic area for a space programme because relationships with other countries are influenced by political, economic, cultural, and human personality factors as well as scientific and technological factors.

 India has always recognized that space has dimension beyond national considerations, which can only be addressed along with international partners. 

ISRO is pursuing bilateral and multilateral relations with space agencies and space related bodies.

Its aims are:

• Building and strengthening existing ties between countries; 
• Taking up new scientific and technological challenges; 
• Refining space policies and defining international frameworks for exploitation and utilization of outer space for peaceful purposes.

The scope of international cooperation has become wider and diverse, as ISRO has made tremendous progress in recent time.

Highlights of a few achievements through international cooperation

Chandrayaan-1:

• ISRO’s maiden mission to Moon, the Chandrayaan-1, has been an exemplary example of international cooperation with its international payloads.

• It has also earned several national and international laurels and was instrumental in the ISRO-NASA joint discovery of water molecules on the moon surface, unattained by any of the previous missions of such nature.

 Megha-Tropiques

• The Indo-French joint satellite mission called MEGHA-TROPIQUES was launched in 2011 for the study of the tropical atmosphere and climate related to aspects such as monsoons, cyclones, etc. 
• The data products from this satellite are made available to the international Scientific community.

SARAL

• Another joint mission with France, named SARAL (Satellite for ALTIKA and ARGOS) for studying ocean from space using altimetry was successfully launched on February 25, 2013. 
• CNES provided a radar altimeter instrument called ALTIKA and an on-board relay instrument for the international ARGOS data collection system, while, ISRO provided the satellite platform, launch and operations for this joint mission. 
• The data from the altimeter is currently made available to global scientific community. 

Ongoing and future activities

• ISRO and NASA are realizing a joint satellite mission called NISAR (NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) for earth science studies. 
• As part of the Indo-French cooperation, ISRO and CNES are conducting a feasibility study on realizing an earth observation satellite mission with thermal infrared imager, named as TRISHNA. 
• ISRO and JAXA scientists are conducting the feasibility study to realize a joint satellite mission to explore the moon’s polar region.

As part of ISRO’s prestigious Gaganyaan programme, the cooperation opportunities with countries and space agencies having expertise in human space flight are being explored. 

The cooperation activities are focused in astronaut training, life support systems, radiation shielding solutions etc.

UNNATI 

ISRO has announced an 8-week capacity building programme on nano satellite development, named as UNNATI ( UNispace Nanosatellite Assembly & Training by ISRO).

• It as an initiative of UNISPACE+50 (the 50th Anniversary of the first United Nations conference on the exploration and peaceful uses of outer space). 
• In the first batch, 30 participants from 17 countries were successfully trained during Jan 15 – Mar 15, 2019.  

Participation in international bodies in the field of Space:

India continues to play active role in deliberation on Scientific and Technical and Legal sub-committees of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN-COPUOS).

 India also plays major role in other multilateral fora including:

• United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP), 
• International COSPAS-SARSAT system for search and rescue operations, 
• International Astronautical Federation (IAF), 
• International Academy of Astronautics (IAA),
• International Institute of Space Law (IISL), 
• Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), 
• Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), 
• Inter Agency Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), 
• Space Frequency Coordination Group (SFCG), 
• Coordinating Group on Meteorological Satellites (CGMS),
• International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG), 
• International Global Observing Strategy (IGOS),
• International Space University (ISU), 
• Asian Association for Remote Sensing (AARS), 
• International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), etc.