WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 15: India has been clubbed with powerful nations China and Japan as Asia's ``space tigers who could fulfil an important role next millennium as alternatives to the better known systems from Europe, Russia and the US''".Lauding Indian achievements in space technology and viewing the country as Asia's one of the three `space tigers', US science magazine Aviation Week and Space Technology, said ``India could be the region's sleeper. Using a low-key, low-cost approach, it has earned respect for its satellite development programme, especially in imaging systems."It said India's space budget for 1997-98 was just $303 million in comparison to $2.8 billion of Japan whose engines' failures were likely to put its H-2A, the commercialised H-2, at least three years behind schedule.Referring to China's long March launcher's repeated failures, the weekly said technical advice from the US manufacturers seemed to have helped stabilise the programme but it had also made the long March persona non grata just as it was showing maturity due to impact of Washington's domestic politics.The weekly said like China and Japan, India's main goal in developing the geostationary satellite launch vehicle (GSLV) and the smaller PSLV was an independent launch capability, adding that making the programmes commercial was a secondary goal for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).After its `initial failures', PSLV had recorded four straight successes, including the launch in may of ISRO's oceansat (IRS-P4) and piggyback payloads for South Korea and Germany, the magazine said.It also praised India for coming out of the difficulties during the development of PSLV's upper stages due to scrapping of a deal by Russia in 1992 to provide Russian cryo technology under US pressure.Aviation Week said the first launch of the GSLV was about a year behind schedule, but a date was to be set by next March, with liftoff expected by midyear, according to Rajeev Lochan, who heads ISRO's office here.A second flight was expected late in 2000, allowing the GSLV to become operational in 2001."India's Insat programme is an obvious customer, but ISRO intends to market the launcher internationally. ISRO has planned for a second GSLV pad in anticipation of a commercial programme," the weekly said.The Aviation Week said the Chinese were marketing long March as a lower-cost alternative to the European Ariane for India's Insat-3 launches.For technical reasons, officials did not expect Japan's commercial launch business to get under way until at least 2002, the weekly said.
