India has done a better Job

Beijing, February 21: India has done a far better job than China in promoting satellite launch technology which could prompt Beijing to fast-track commercialization of its rocket launches to vie for the world's small satellite market, Chinese officials said yesterday.

"The launch indicated that India can send commercial satellites into space at lower costs, giving the country's competitiveness in the global race for the burgeoning commercial space businesses," Zhang Yonghe, the director with the new technology department of the Shanghai Engineering Centre for Microsatellites, said.

China may fast-track the commercialisation of its rocket launches after India's success, Chinese-state run media quoted Chinese officials as saying in a report titled 'India's satellite launch ramps up space race'. Zhang believes that India did a better job promoting its launch services internationally than China, the report said.

Acknowledging that after reaching Mars ahead of China, India stole the march last week by putting 104 satellites into orbit from a single rocket, Zhang said, "China will likely fast-track the commercialisation of its rocket launches to vie for the world's burgeoning small satellite launch market.

"The Wednesday's launch is India's latest triumph for its space program"," a Global Times report said. "In 2014, India became the fourth country to successfully send a spacecraft to orbit Mars, signalling a regional rivalry with China which suffered a failure in its Mars mission in 2012," it said.

"Nearly all of its 103 smaller satellites are from other countries including Israel, Kazakhstan, Switzerland and the US," it said.