India, Aug. 12 -- In a major move to deepen bilateral space collaboration, NASA has invited the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to join its ambitious programme to build humanity's first lunar outpost near the Moon's South Pole.

The project, named the Moon Base mission, is aimed at setting up a permanent habitat for astronauts to live, work, and explore through a series of crewed and uncrewed missions. According to the US space agency, the aim of the project is to unlock new scientific discoveries and prepare for future deep space exploration. India and the US explored expanding their space cooperation at a meeting of their Civil Space Joint Working Group (CSJWG) held in Bengaluru last week.

"NASA invited ISRO to join its Moon ...