Indian equipment for China’s Tiangong space station faces export delay
- Equipment developed by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics to analyse interstellar gas has yet to receive an export licence
- A scientist who played a leading role in the project says political tensions have not helped the process and ‘for now, there’s not much we can do’
A team from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bangalore applied for an export permit from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs for the Spectroscopic Investigations of Nebular Gas (Sing) device about a year ago.
However, the team has not heard of any progress since. “We completed everything two months ago. The instrument is now sitting in the clean room, ready to fly,” said project leader and astrophysicist Jayant Murthy.
“I’ve been told that our application is being processed, and that it has not been approved yet,” he said, adding that Sing was supposed to arrive in China last year to be launched in mid-2023, but had been delayed due to Covid.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has not responded to a request for comment.
Sing was jointly selected by the China Manned Space Agency and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs to be one of nine international experiments carried out on board Tiangong.