On a day when ISRO has successfully conducted the ignition trial of its indigenously built CE20 cryogenic engine, here is a short story about India, Russia, America, Cryogenic Engines, Space Research & an American senator and how Russia was prevented from helping India with its space program back in the 1990s… !!!
Firstly, check out this article on Why Isro successfully firing LVM-3’s cryogenic engine is a big achievement
Now let’s come to the story…
So, back in the 90s after the USSR collapsed, the Russian economy was teetering and needed aid. The US had proposed a US$24 billion aid package to Russia as Russia was in dire straits.
At around the same time, India was trying to get long range rockets & cryogenic engines from Russia. The value of the deal? US$250 million. These engines alongwith the technology transfer that was to come with it, were crucial for the Indian Space program, especially to graduate from the PSLVs to GSLVs.
President Bush (senior) and the republicans were OK with it. But a Democratic senator put in an amendment in the aid bill in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which stated that if Russia sold the cryogenic engine technology to India, this aid package would be scuttled. Russia badly needed this aid. So, it had no choice but to back down from the deal it already had made with India. Ultimately, the US allowed Moscow to supply 7 Cryogenic engines to India. But no technology transfer was allowed thereby impairing India’s ambitious Space mission.
It was argued by this senator that the sale was not in line with the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which is supposed to prevent the proliferation of missiles. But neither Russia nor India was an MTCR member. Also, cryogenic engines are not considered capable of being used in long-range missiles like the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs).
Meanwhile, around the same time, China was taking technology from Russia by the bushel. The US, including this particular senator, preferred to look the other way.
It took years longer that it would have, but India finally developed its own space launch vehicle program, in no small part aided by the help it had gotten from Russia before the deal was scuttled. But this action by this Senate Committee ended up pushing back India’s space program by 5-10 years.
In case you’re wondering who the senator was who scuttled the deal between India & Russia but looked the other way when China was dealing with Russia, well, it should come as no surprise – it was JOE BIDEN.
“This is no minor sale; this is dangerous. I am confident that the Russian leaders will recognise the wisdom of stopping this sale once they see the risk of losing their economic aid.”
– exact words by Senator Joseph R. Biden, who offered the amendment.
Anyway, all this won’t matter now, coz I doubt if President Biden currently remembers that he did this in the 1990s. 🤷🏻♂️
P.S. A couple of links (there are many many more out there):
Back in 1992, Joe Biden made sure that India does not get access to cryogenic tech for its space programme
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