India not engaged in space race with China: ISRO chief

Bangalore, Oct 12 (PTI) As India prepares for its first unmanned mission to the Moon next week, Indian Space Research Organisation (I.S.R.O.) chief Madhavan Nair has said that New Delhi is not engaged in a space race with Beijing, stating that the priorities of the two countries are different and there is no competition.

Chandrayaan-1, the country's first unmanned lunar venture, is slated for launch on October 22 and India has proposed Mars mission in 2013 and a human space flight by 2015.

China undertook a manned orbital flight in 2003 and launched a lunar satellite in October last year.

Ahead of Chandrayaan-1, India's most ambitious space venture to date, some analysts have said that it is an attempt to catch up with China and a space race involving the two Asian rivals.

However, I.S.R.O. chairman Madhavan Nair, who is also the
Secretary in the Department of Space, disagrees with this view.

"Our priorities have been in providing the societal services, based on the space assets. There, we have been concentrating on earth observation and communication areas.

Launch vehicles which are appropriate for these missions have
been developed. That's way, we have developed technologies and
systems required for national development", he told P.T.I. in an interview.

"Now, since we have some breathing time (we can also
focus on areas beyond the above mentioned areas), we are now
concentrating on planetary explorations and activities which
are supposed to be taken up for the next decade. In that
context, we are now taking up the proposals for the manned
mission and so on," he said.

Nair said China's main leadership is in manned missions.
"In other areas...in some of the areas, we (India) are
leading, and in some of the (other areas) they (China) are
leading. But there is nothing like competition between these
two countries. They have their own priorities and we have our
own priorities. We are happy that we are able to meet the
national requirements with minimum resources".

He said China and India are emerging as space powers in
the Asian region.

Asked how he looked at the Chandrayaan-1 mission from an
international perspective, Nair said New Delhi has set an
example of good cooperation between it and the international
community in planetary explorations.

I.S.R.O. official noted that the mission carries 11
payloads (scientific instruments) - five designed and
developed in India, three from European Space Agency, two from
the U.S. and one from Bulgaria.

"Chandrayaan-1 will certainly expand our capacity to
travel outside the earth's gravitational field and to that
extent, build our technology expertise to go to other planets
(Mars) as well", the I.S.R.O. Chairman said.


Nair said I.S.R.O. planned a Mars mission in 2013. While
this mission would also be its own, he said: "if some other
scientists (payloads of other countries) also want to fly
instruments with it, we will encourage them".

India and Russia have already signed an M.o.U. for joint
development of a lunar rover and robotic arms to be used in
Chandrayaan-2 mission targeted for launch on Geo-synchronous
Satellite Launch Vehicle (G.S.L.V.) during 2011-12 time-frame.
The cooperation envisages Chandrayaan-2, a joint lunar mission
involving a lunar orbiting spacecraft and a lander-rover on
the moon's surface.