India works with dozens of countries, with more than 300 space agreements across 61 nations, from the Soviet launch of Aryabhata to the NASA-ISRO NISAR radar satellite.
India's space programme has always had partners. Its first satellite, Aryabhata, was launched by the Soviet Union in 1975. In 1984 Rakesh Sharma flew to space aboard the Soviet Soyuz T-11. By 2026 India had signed more than 300 space cooperation agreements with 61 countries and 5 multilateral organisations.
The biggest joint project is NISAR, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar. It launched on GSLV-F16 from Sriharikota on 30 July 2025. ISRO built the S-band radar, the spacecraft and the rocket. NASA supplied the L-band radar, a 12 m reflector antenna on a 9 m boom, a data recorder and a GPS receiver. NISAR images the world's land and ice surfaces every 12 days to track earthquakes, landslides, glaciers and crops.
With France's space agency CNES, ISRO is building TRISHNA, a thermal infrared satellite scheduled for 2026.
ISRO launched 35 foreign satellites from the 1990s to 2014, and 399 more between 2014 and March 2026.
India also leads the BIMSTEC Space Programme for its neighbours, and NE-SAC runs space-application training for BIMSTEC countries.
India also gives. The South Asia Satellite (GSAT-9) launched on 5 May 2017 on GSLV-F09. India paid its full cost of about ₹450 crore. Its 12 Ku-band transponders serve Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, with one transponder for each country.
Human spaceflight leans heavily on partners. Russia trained India's first Gaganyatris at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre. ESA provides network support for Gaganyaan, and Australia helps with crew recovery. In 2025 Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla flew to the ISS on the Axiom-4 mission, supported by ISRO and NASA.
Worked example: 35 foreign satellites in roughly two decades is under 2 a year. 399 between 2014 and March 2026 (about 11 years) is about 35 a year, nearly twenty times faster.
Follow NISAR's estimated ground track; its radar images a strip of ground about 240 km wide beneath that line. Track NISAR
How NISAR's work is shared. The satellite is built on ISRO's I-3K structure and weighed about 2,400 kg at lift-off. It carries two radars that share one 12 m unfurlable reflector: NASA's L-band radar and an S-band radar from ISRO's Space Applications Centre. ISRO commands and operates the satellite; NASA provides the orbit manoeuvre plan and the radar operations plan. Both agencies' ground stations download the data.
Two bands, one platform. ISRO notes that collecting S-band and L-band radar data from a single satellite helps scientists understand changes on Earth, and that the radar uses a technique called SweepSAR to combine high resolution with a wide swath. The observable swath is about 240 km, with resolution between 5 and 100 m depending on mode.
Coverage arithmetic. Earth's equator is about 40,075 km long. Strips 240 km wide need 40,075 ÷ 240 ≈ 167 strips to cover it once. NISAR's orbit is arranged so that its passes fill in those gaps over a 12-day repeat cycle.
Launch customers. The PIB backgrounder of June 2026 gives 35 foreign satellites launched before 2014 and 399 between 2014 and March 2026, for a total of 434.
NISAR is the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite, a joint Earth-observation mission. ISRO built the S-band radar, spacecraft and launcher; NASA supplied the L-band radar and the large reflector antenna.
GSAT-9, a communication satellite launched by India on 5 May 2017 and paid for by India, giving one Ku-band transponder each to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
The Soviet Union, which launched Aryabhata on 19 April 1975.