What do NASA Staff thinks about ISRO !!

Most NASA staff have never heard of ISRO. Most NASA people (nor could most civilians) could not tell you that Japan has 2 space agencies (arguably 3), nor could they tell you that the US has 2 space agencies (soon, maybe, to be 3). A few could tell you about ESA and its structure, a few more can say a few words about the Russian Agency.

One of NASA's major internally known problems is the lack of understanding of globalization. This would be critical in shared cost programs. The problem is that old Cold War Habits die hard (most notably export control's influence on secondary thoughts). When ever the word "International" is used, warning lights go off in NASA heads.

The people tasked to work with international agreements are comparatively few.

Addendum: So some time has past since I wrote the above, and the question sat in my head some time when I decided to chat with a former colleague who works at NASA for another country’s space agency who has worked with ISRO. His comment was that he felt ISRO was arrogant.

Now, before you get ruffled over that, I should point out to the reader as I did to him (OK: I gave away his gender), that I could sense inter-NASA-Center rivalry (unlike most NASA employees, I’ve worked and visited multiple Centers; they all have their strengths and weaknesses). He’s still trying to fly instruments (I’ve worked on flight projects). All people have to have some amount of confidence (I’m saying that as the net’s Resident Cynic (an optimist has no need of error correcting codes; they are stupid, even Cray changed his mind)). Addendum: he has since passed away from cancer.

So there are perceptions about this. Maybe I should have asked some of my former Center management for you guys at the Christmas party last week. The option is still there in the future.

So over the Xmas holiday, I raised the question with a colleague who had some ISRO knowledge, and he was surprised at the question. He acknowledged an inexpensive Mars probe ($42M) and gives credit for that (and success at first try).

I should also note that Kalpana Chawla, with whom I worked for a couple of years, was one of the least arrogant people I knew. Maybe because of her mom and sisters.