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ISRO chief: India-U.S. space cooperation slow

The countries should take a leap; have more space commerce

Washington: Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G. Madhavan Nair has voiced concern over the “slow” growth of Indo-U.S. space cooperation and wants the two countries to take a leap, by having more space commerce also.

“There are pluses and minuses. But we have to be patient... we have to convince,” he said, adding “the process is rather slow and I wish it was faster.”

Mr. Nair, who is here to hold talks with his American counterparts, said: “At the political level, there is a good understanding. In 2005, our Prime Minister visited here and with President Bush agreed to strengthen the relations in space cooperation, space commerce and so on. We are trying to move forward on this.”

He was speaking at a seminar on “Global Space Agenda” held under the aegis of the Space Initiatives of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a top think tank in Washington D.C.

“There are positive signs and there are negative signs.” Recently there was success with Raytheon on GPS but with another company on semiconductor fab, export control regulations came in the way.

Mr. Nair, who is also the Chairman of the Space Commission and Secretary in the Department of Space, denied having any formal relations with China in space programmes.

“On a commercial basis Chinese space agencies use us. But otherwise we do not have any formal cooperation with China.”

He also dismissed apprehensions that India’s military programmes could siphon off funds from the ISRO. “Right from its inception, ISRO has been working on the peaceful application of outer space. There can be no weaponisation of outer space. That has been our stand,” he said.

“As far as military programmes are concerned, we have another organisation, the DRDO. We are de-linked and there is no commonality.”

The ISRO chief is scheduled to meet senior officials of the Bush administration including National Aeronautics and Space Administration administrator Michael Griffin. Fine-tuning America’s involvement in India’s moon mission Chandrayaan-1 will also be discussed.

Mr. Nair said a probe of Mars by India was very much on the agenda. “Our scientific community would like to see what new things we can find. It is not just for the sake of sending a probe to Mars. Yes, we have an agenda by 2012, by then we should have a Mars mission.” — PTI

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