NEW DELHI - It
has been described as a new frontier in US
outsourcing with India - outer space. Recently,
the space agencies of the US and India, the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) and the Indian Space Research Organization
(ISRO), signed an agreement to fly two US
lunar-mapping instruments on India's first
unmanned mission to orbit the moon, Chandrayan-1,
scheduled for early 2008.
Under the
agreement, India's US$89 million moon mission will
include US scientific payloads that will search
for ice in polar areas under permanent shadow and
map minerals on the moon's surface.
"There
was a period of time between our nations where,
because of nuclear-proliferation issues and other
factors, the ability to
cooperate on technical
matters was less strong than it is today," NASA
administrator Michael Griffin told reporters after
signing the deal with G Madhavan Nair, chairman of
the ISRO.
Griffin is the first NASA chief
to visit India in three decades to discuss
cooperation in space. Griffin said the visit of US
President George W Bush to India in March "had
contributed to future cooperation possibilities".
Recently, top officials of ISRO, which has
carried the brunt of US sanctions on the
development of dual-use technologies, have been
visiting the United States for discussions with
scientists. Even if the Chandrayan payload may not
hold immense scientific value, other messages are
attached.
It is a clear indication that
much water has flowed since India turned into a
nuclear weapons state in May 1998 and the US
imposed strict sanctions on India's nuclear and
space programs.
India and the US are not
strangers in space cooperation, which dates to
1963, when an Indian atmospheric experiment was
carried on a US-made rocket. However, progress has
been hobbled by the interlinking of India's
missile, space and nuclear programs. Motors used
in the launch vehicles of satellites have been
incorporated into military missiles.
Successive US administrations have refused
to approve sales of nuclear material or
cooperation in space, since India does not adhere
to the global nuclear regime governed by the
Non-Proliferation Treaty. India (as well as
Pakistan) has not signed the NPT, as it feels it
discriminates between the nuclear haves and
have-nots, with no obligation on the adherents of
the NPT to rein in their nuclear programs.
In September 2004, the US imposed
sanctions on two Indian scientists after their
alleged nuclear cooperation with Iran, sanctions
at which India strongly protested.
However, the restrictions have been eased
as relations have improved, culminating in the
nuclear-energy deal in March that seeks to
recognize India as a "nuclear exception",
providing access to nuclear-power technology and
uranium. The US resumed granting of
space-technology export licenses in September
2001. India has been trying to impress the world
community that despite being a non-signatory of
the NPT, it remains a "responsible" nuclear
nation.
The US-India Chandrayan tie-up has
been announced at a time when the nuclear deal
between the two countries is stuck in the US
Congress, because of the same issue that bedeviled
space cooperation in the past - dual use of
technology. It is another instance of the US being
serious about the strategic shift in relations
with India with regard to Pakistan and China, with
a signal that even if the nuclear issue has not
moved, crucial incremental changes can happen in
other spheres.
"As an effort between our
prime minister [Manmohan Singh] and President
Bush, three [other] institutions were removed from
the list to enable import of more high-tech
imports and services from the US," Nair said. "I
hope this will encourage an improvement in
space-commerce activity in the coming years."
Interestingly, Griffin visited two of the
three remaining US-blacklisted "entities", the
ISRO's rocket-making facility of the Vikram
Sarabhai Space Center at Thiruvananthapuram and
the launch pad, the Satish Dhawan Space Center at
Sriharikota.
Delhi also feels that the US
payload sends the right pointer to the rest of the
world about India's ability to deliver on space
technology. India has been looking to cooperate
with the US in this field because of the potential
for business. The Times of India comments, "If
Chandrayan-1 were to become a flag-waving
opportunity for India in space, then a US role in
facilitating its mission should go down well and
augment ties at the popular level too. The
possibilities for future collaboration in space
are immense."
Indeed, in the new paradigm
of improved India-US relations, many feel that the
time is ripe for India to embark on a
government-led campaign to win launch orders by
competitive bids, especially to developing
countries. Nair has said that India's launch
vehicles were cost-effective and thus competitive.
"It will be a great opportunity for us if we can
capture at least 10% in the launch business, which
is worth US$2 billion in the international
market," he said.
The United States is a
good starting point for synergies, given the stiff
competition that India is likely to face from
China in this field. Chandrayan, which was
approved in 2004, moved high on New Delhi's
priority list in the wake of China's successful
manned mission of October 2003, becoming the third
country after the US and Russia, to travel to
space. China plans to send its own lunar orbiter,
followed by a robotic rover, in the next four to
five years. Russia, the US and Europe continue to
lead the world in space launches, followed by
China.
Of course, it helps that a fair
sprinkling of Indians work at NASA. It is
estimated that 5-10% of NASA scientists are of
Indian origin, an aspect that was emphasized in a
recent Bollywood release, Swades, featuring
top star Shahrukh Khan. Prominent NASA Indians
include Prasun Desai, working on entry and landing
procedures of the Mars Rovers, and Amitabh Ghosh,
who looks at geological data from Mars. The late
astronaut Kalpana Chawla is another prominent
example.
ISRO is developing two categories
of rockets - polar satellite launch vehicles
(PSLVs) designed for Earth observation and
scientific missions such as remote-sensing
satellites and Chandrayan. The larger
geosynchronous satellite launch vehicles (GSLVs)
deliver communications satellites into
geostationary orbits 36,000 kilometers above the
Earth, where they can "hover" over the same place.
The GSLV motors form the critical stages of
operations of the long-range Agni missiles that
are capable of delivering nuclear payloads.
The Indian launch vehicles are not yet
powerful enough for India's heaviest satellites,
which have been launched on Europe's Ariane. But
ISRO plans to become self-sufficient in this
sector from 2008, when its GLSV-3 launcher is due
to be ready to heavier satellites.
ISRO is
soon slated to embark on its first fully
commercial satellite launch when the Italian
satellite Agile will be carried to outer space
aboard the PSLV C-8, for a reported price of $10
million.
Siddharth Srivastava is
a New Delhi-based journalist.
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