The US NASA will train two Indian astronauts, one of whom plans to fly to the International Space Station by the end of next year.

CTOnews.com, December 4 (Xinhua)-- National Aeronautics and Space Administration Director Bill Nelson said NASA will participate in the training of two Indian astronauts, one of whom will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of next year.

S. Somanath, chairman of ISRO, said the agency may select four astronauts for training. "all four astronauts will be trained overseas and the two shortlisted candidates will be trained at NASA."

It is not clear whether the astronauts will still be trained for lunar missions, and India has previously said it hopes to achieve its goal of landing on the moon by 2040.

Nelson is currently on a week-long visit to India to strengthen the cooperation between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Previously, both space agencies have pledged to cooperate in future space programs, including planetary defense and joint efforts on ISS.

At a conference in New Delhi this week, Nelson congratulated Jitendra Singh, India's vice minister of science and technology, for successfully completing the mission of Moonboat 3, creating a new history in India.

He told NDTV's Pallava Bagla,NASA that it is now waiting for ISRO's approval to begin astronaut training. "it will be a year from now. By the end of 2024, the Indian astronaut will go to the space station for two weeks, and then they will conduct scientific experiments that are of great significance to India."

Nelson will also meet with Rakesh Sharma this week. (CTOnews.com Note: he was the first Indian citizen to reach low-orbit space in 1984 and went on a week-long trip to the Soviet Salyut 7 space station.

Meanwhile, the two major space agencies will jointly launch the NISAR Earth observation satellite early next year. "it's very important to do this as a partner," Nelson said.