Permanent Mission of India
New York
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80th session of the UNGA on Fourth Committee General Debate
on Agenda Item No. 48

“International cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space”

Statement by Dr. Bhola Singh, Member of Parliament
October 30, 2025

Mr. Chair,

India deeply values the role played by the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in ensuring and encouraging peaceful uses of outer space for humankind. Being a major space-faring nation, India has vital development interest in space. We consistently support and advocate the need to preserve outer space as a common heritage of humankind.

2. For over five decades, India has been pursuing its space activities with the vision of utilizing the applications of space technology for the benefit of the common man. Our space programme has always focused on integrating the advances in space technology and applications with the national development goals. This is evident from the fact that the national space agency, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is currently working with 60 Ministries and Departments of the government on promoting space technology tools and application.

3. During the last one year, India had many launch vehicle and satellite missions. In December 2024, India’s PSLV-C59 rocket placed European Space Agency’s Proba-3 satellites in the orbit under a commercial launch service agreement. In December itself, PSLV-C60 launched the SPADEX mission. This mission successfully demonstrated key technologies including in-orbit docking / undocking, power transfer between the satellites and circumnavigation. Launch of GSLV-F15 / NVS-02 on January 29, 2025 marked the 100^th launch from Sriharikotta launch pads.

4. The various developmental activities for Indian human space flight mission Gaganyaan are progressing well. On August 24, 2025, ISRO accomplished first Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-01) for Gaganyaan program at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota. This test successfully demonstrated the objective of end-to-end performance validation of the critical parachute-based deceleration system of the Crew Module for Gaganyaan mission.

5. The successful launch of ISRO – NASA Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) Satellite mission onboard GSLV on July 30, 2025 is a milestone in ISRO’s international cooperation activities. The reflector was fully deployed and the payloads are operational now. The first image was downloaded on August 19, 2025.

6. As part of training, the Indian Gaganyaatris (Astronauts), ISRO jointly with NASA undertook a mission to International Space Station (ISS). Through this, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the first Indian to travel to ISS on June 25, 2025 onboard SpaceX Crew Dragon. During his 18 days stay at ISS, Mr Shukla completed 7 microgravity experiments and participated as a subject in 7 human research experiments undertaken in collaboration with NASA, ESA and Axiom Space.

7. Other international collaboration projects of ISRO are progressing well. The ISRO – French national space agency joint satellite mission “TRISHNA” realisation activities are progressing both in India and France. In addition to enhancing cooperation with space faring nations, India is also providing support to space aspiring countries. An India – Mauritius Joint Satellite is in the realisation phase. This mission is conceived with the objective of capacity building of Mauritius officials.

8. During the last one-year, ISRO’s International cooperation continued to expand. 14 cooperative documents have signed with partners from 10 nations, viz. for human space flight related cooperation with Australia, United States and European Space Agency; initiating cooperation with Saudi Arabia, Philippines and Republic of Korea; ground station support with ESA and Mauritius; academic collaboration with Netherlands; joint lunar mission with Japan; navigation support with South Africa; and for collaboration in Venus orbiter mission with Sweden.

9. As the lead of the “International Charter: Space and Major Disasters” for the period of April to September 2025, ISRO organised the 53^rd meeting of the Charter in April 2025. 32 delegates from 15 space agencies across the world attended the sessions.

10. ISRO jointly with International Astronautical Federation has organised the Global Space Exploration Conference at New Delhi during May 7-9, 2025. The conference brought together over 1500 delegates from 36 countries who have contributed to over 650 technical presentations across 15 thematic areas related to space exploration.

11. India continues to provide capacity building to officials from other countries through the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) and the UN affiliated Center for Space Science and Technology Education in the Asia and Pacific (CSSTEAP). 324 officials from foreign countries benefitted from various courses conducted at CSSTEAP during this period.

12. The Indian private space ecosystem is also growing. The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Center is handholding with the private industries by promoting and authorising their activities.

13. In conclusion, the Indian delegation would like to express its full support to this Committee in all its endeavours in promoting peaceful uses of outer space.

I, thank you, Chair.

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