As India nears its goal to put the first Indian in space under the project Gaganyaan, Australia has decided to extend its support by tracking it through Cocos Keeling island, Deputy Head Australia Space Agency Anthony Murfett said on Monday.
Speaking at the International Space Conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Murfett said, “space cooperation between the two countries is on an upswing and the space agencies of India and Australia have recently updated their Memorandum of Understanding. We are going to be supporting this Gaganyaan mission by tracking through Australia’s territory on the Cocos Keeling islands,”.
Earlier this year, The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Sivan had said the Indian space agency holding talks with the Australian counterpart if they would allow the ground station at the Cocos Keeling islands to track the Gaganyaan mission.
Having access to such crucial relay stations is important to track satellites in orbit because they cannot pass along their information to the ground stations on Earth unless they have a clear view of the ground station.
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