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US to send an Indian astronaut to International Space Station by year-end: Envoy
US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti said that Washington will fulfil its promise made to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his 2023 visit.
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Eric Garcetti, US envoy to India, addresses the audience during an event in Mumbai on May.22. / X/@USAmbIndia
America will send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) by the end of 2024, US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti said on May.22.
“We are going to put an Indian astronaut into the International Space Station this year,” Garcetti said while attending an event for the upcoming 248th US Independence Day. “We promised when PM Modi came (to the US in 2023) that by the end of this year, we will do this and our mission is still on track to be able to go in space this year (2024).”
The diplomat also lauded India's ‘Chandrayaan 3’ mission that landed on the Moon in 2023 at a fraction of the cost that the US undertook on a similar lunar mission. But he also underscored the capacities that the US currently possesses and India does not.
“When the two are combined, both countries have those capacities,” he added.
“On July 20, 1969, the world watched as Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the moon. On July 14, 2023, India’s Chandrayaan-3 became the first spacecraft ever to land on the moon’s south pole. Today, we celebrate the giant leaps the United States and India… pic.twitter.com/q5bsWkaXe2
— U.S. Consulate Mumbai (@USAndMumbai) May 23, 2024
“Equal stakes for minority groups must for any democracy”
Responding to a question on concerns around the treatment of minorities in India, Garcetti said that the Indians "will take care of their own democracy".
Recently, a New York Times report titled "Strangers in Their Own Land: Being Muslim in Modi’s India" alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "chipped away at the secular framework and robust democracy that had long held India together".
"I will also say in broad terms that diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility are not just (concerns) on election day. They are (there) all the time. Democracy is a daily plebiscite," the US envoy said.
"We all have to work, like we do in the US, (to make sure) that everybody, whether it is an ethnic or religious minority, whether it is women or youth, whether it is the poor, all feel that they have an equal stake in the democracy," Garcetti added.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) issued an official notification on May.23 directing the ruling BJP to refrain from religious and communal overtones during their campaign speeches amidst the ongoing general elections in the country.
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