Bangalore: India and the US are set for the first serious bilateral engagement about space co-operation in four decades next week with intention to reinvigorate ties by leveraging each other's strengths.

The expected outcome of the "India-US Conference on Space Science, Applications & Commerce - Strengthening & Expanding Co-operation" here from June 21-25, is to chart out suggestions for future bilateral co-operation and commerce between the two countries.

According to information available on the event, scientists, policy makers, and the private sector, including from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), would explore additional co-operation between the two nations.

The history of co-operation in space activities between the two countries dates back 40 years. The launch of NASA-supplied Nike-Apache scientific sounding rockets from the Indian Thumba Equatorial Rocket launch site in November 1963 was the first in a series of cooperative technologies that extended for about a decade.

But next week's event, organised by the Astronautical Society of India (ASI) and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), is the first serious bilateral engagement about space co-operation.