Export challenges delay Indian equipment meant for Chinese space station

The device, SING, was selected by the China Manned Space Agency and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. It is meant to be one of nine international experiments carried out on board Tiangong

China is dreaming big with its mission of Tiangong space station, a permanent crewed space station operated by China Manned Space Agency in low Earth orbit.

But Beijing's giant leap in space witnessed challenges. The latest report by The South China Morning Post said that Indian scientists have ended in a deadlock in their attempt to ship a scientific instrument, which will apparently be used Tiangong space station.

The report mentioned that about a year ago, 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.

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As quoted, project leader and astrophysicist Jayant Murthy said that 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".

Murthy, the research partner with the Tiangong Space Station, added, "I've been told that our application is being processed and that it has not been approved yet."

He also said that the device was supposed to arrive in China last year to be launched in mid-2023, but had been delayed due to COVID-19 (coronavirus).

The SCMP report mentioned that the device, SING, was selected by the China Manned Space Agency and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. It is meant to be one of nine international experiments carried out on board Tiangong.

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Experts have said that SING is a small spectrograph payload designed to observe extended sources over a wide field of view (FOV) in the NUV range from 1400 to 2700. Unlike the previous missions, such as IUE or FUSE which were more focused on point sources, SING will perform spectroscopy over a wide field of the diffused sources in the sky with medium spectral resolution.

Murthy said that issues related to space became sensitive when it came to space, and the tense India-China ties didn't help much.

He said, "I've tried to explain that our instrument would be pointing up towards the sky, and not looking down at the Earth at all, but that apparently did not work."

He also said that some experiments, which are being developed in Europe, were also facing export clearance problems.

(With inputs from agencies)

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