India Launches Indigenous Cryogenic Rocket 126
An anonymous reader writes "The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) today successfully launched its heavy-duty rocket — the Geo Synchronous Satellite Launch vehicle (GSLV). The communication satellite, GSAT-14 was launched from Isro's spaceport at Sriharikota, about 80 km from Chennai. ISRO had to develop the cryogenic technology from scratch after the United States prevented Russia from transferring the technology to the India in 1993. Today's successful launch marks the culmination of a 20 year effort to develop the engine."
The US played a huge part in delaying India (Score:5, Interesting)
The United States prevented Russia from transferring cryogenic engine technology to India, so India had to develop this from scratch. And then there is the famous ISRO spy scandal which the CIA is believed to have orchestrated. The CIA is believed to have got top scientists working on the Indian cryogenic engine implicated in a scandal, thus slowing down the program. The supreme court of India recently exonerated the accused scientists of any wrongdoing.
Please read these:
http://www.rediff.com/news/column/who-killed-the-isros-cryogenic-engine/20131118.htm
http://indrus.in/blogs/2013/11/09/cryogenic_countdown_how_the_gslv_became_indias_missile_impossible_30711.html
Re:The US played a huge part in delaying India (Score:2, Interesting)
This was just after the Soviet Union broke up. Russia was economically vulnerable back then. Yeltsin was their president. They backed off under pressure from the US, specifically under threats of economic consequence.