NEW DELHI: French Aerospace companies have assured the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) supply of space components the exports of which are banned by the United States.
Thomson-CSF and Matra of France are stepping in to Substitute the US as major suppliers of space components to ISRO. The ISRO Chief Prof UR Rao had held discussions with these two companies here recently before leaving for Keurou to watch the INSAT 2 a launch.
Director of Space of Thomson ICSF Michael Traizet said “we would be pleased to help out ISRO. “We and ISRO are already partners. We are now prepared to go further and work more closely” he said.
Asked what assistance was required by ISRO he said discussions centered around supply of travelling wave tubes TWT radiation hardened semion ductor devices and charge-coupled detectors for the next series of IRS satellites. Meanwhile India has reiterated that they will not yield any international pressure in its ambitious missile program which was completely indigenous and not dependents on any foreign technology Minister of State for Defence S. Krishna Kumar said. “The Missile Technology |Control Regime (MTCR) or any other such pressures will not affect our missile development program which is progressing well” the Minister said while replying to a spate of questions at by newsmen at the Economic Editors Conference here.
Kumar said the country had already started limited production of the surface-to-surface Prithvi missile which had range of 300 km and surface to air Trishul missals adding that the full production of these missiles would commence from next year. He said the mult target capability surface-to-air missile. Akash and the state of| art anti-tank missile Nag would be produced from 1995.
The Minister also disclosed that| India was among the three countries in the world which was working on designing a “hyper plane” with a capability of launching multiple satellites.
In a written reply to Sharad Yadav in Lok Sabha Minister of State for External Affairs RL Bhatia said the government was not aware of any decision by the MICR member countries apart from the United States to impose sanctions against the ISRO for its plan to buy cryogenic engines from Russia.
The Government is aware of reports in which the US Government has claimed that its decision to impose sanctions against ISRO had been endorsed by all other members of the MTCR” the Minister said.
The Minister said the Government regretted the US decision to impose sanctions against ISRO. Particularly because our space program is entirely peaceful and geared towards creating infrastructure for our economic development.
The Minister asserted that the cryogenic rockets had no military applications.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 24, 1992
