Chinese Premier visits ISRO

Boost for peaceful use of space technologies

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) satellite centre here on Sunday on the second day of his four-day visit to India.

Jiabao, one of the highest ranking Chinese leaders to visit India, was briefed on India's space programme by ISRO's chairman, G Madhavan Nair, a department of space release said. Jiabao was shown around the centre, following Nair's presentation, the release said.

India has an MoU with the Chinese National Space Agency on co-operation in the application of space for peaceful uses.

The two countries have exchanged visits of space scientists and government officials to "share experiences and identify areas of co-operation in the application of space technology," the release said.

In 2004-05, with the launch of the Indian remote sensing satellite, IRS P6 (Resourcesat 1), ISRO's marketing arm Antrix Corporation had struck a deal to provide downlink access to the Chinese, ISRO officials said.

"An existing Chinese earth station will now directly receive data from our remote sensing satellites," they said.

ISRO's remote sensing satellites supply data to an international network of nearly 20 ground stations, including 5 in the US, 2 in Europe and 3 in Russia. In addition to China, Antrix is also exploring sales in Latin America, the officials said.

Earlier, Premier Wen Jiabao visited a local facility of Chinese telecom equipment-maker Huawei Technologies.