Joe Biden turned out to be the biggest danger for India’s ambitious space programme. In the 1990s, India was looking to get the Cryogenic technology from the Russian Space Agency at $250 million, which would have played an important role in missions involving heavy satellites going deeper into Space.
The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee imposed a condition on the $24 billion international assistance that the US was providing to Moscow. The Senate Committee voted to block further American aid to Russia if Moscow went ahead with the $250 million deal with India. The Joe Biden moved this ammendment in US Senate.
Russia was going through economic crisis due break of Soviet Union at that time, get agree to US ammendment. Joe Biden pulled back India’s Space programme by several years.
The US allowed Russian space agency to supply seven Cryogenic engines to India. But no technology transfer was allowed for India’s ambitious Space mission. India had faced many hurdles in developing the Cryogenic technology that involves handling fuel at low temperatures to give the extra thrust required for a rocket to carry heavy satellites ground a longer distances.
Joe Biden tried sabotaging the Space programme of a democratic nation like India, only because he wanted to lead pro-Pakistan sentiments within the US administration at that time.
India couldn’t have advanced from its main launch vehicle- the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) to the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) that is supposed to carry payloads of around 4 to 5 tons.
Because of no foreign technology, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) took two decades to develop indigenous Cryogenic technology.
In December 2014 when an experimental flight of the GLSV (Mk-III) carried an indigenous Cryogenic stage similar to the one that is being used by ISRO today.
And Today, India’s Space Agency ISRO has achieved great heights and it is counted among the top, most efficient space agencies in the world
