ISRO, CNES ink pact on satellite launch

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and French Space agency (CNES) have signed a partnership agreement in satellite launch technology.

The agreement was signed between ISRO Chairman Kiran Kumar and CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall in the presence of visiting French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Marc Ayrault in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

Key Points

Space cooperation is one of the cornerstones of the Indo-French strategic partnership and spans over 50 years. ISRO is the second partner of CNES, in terms of volume, after NASA. This agreement will strengthen the CNES-ISRO partnership.

It will enable France to benefit from the Indian model of streamlining the costs of space programmes.

Besides, agreement was also signed for equipping Axiom Research Lab’s lunar rover with two latest-generation CASPEX micro-cameras, developed by CNES in partnership with French firm 3DPlus.

Axiom Research Lab: It is leading Indian “NewSpace” start-up put forward TeamIndus, the only Indian team competing for the Google Lunar XPRIZE. CNES is providing cameras to Team Indus’ rover that will land on moon.

XPRIZE: It is a global competition organised by Google for engineers and entrepreneurs to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration.

It will award $20 million to the first private company that successfully lands a module on the Moon, places a robot that explores at least 500 metres and transmits HD videos and images back to Earth.

Current Affairs 9th January, 2017
Current Affairs Round Up Bullet Points, December, 2016

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