spacetoday.net: US lifts export restrictions on ISRO

Posted: Sun, Sep 19, 2004, 9:56 AM ET (1356 GMT)
The United States announced Friday that it will lift restrictions on the export of space hardware to the Indian space agency, the latest step in growing cooperation between the two countries' space efforts. The US State Department announced that ISRO will be removed from the Department of Commerce Entity List, which includes organizations "determined to present an unacceptable risk of diversion to developing weapons of mass destruction or the missiles used to deliver those weapons." ISRO had been put on the list after India tested a nuclear weapon in 1998. The decision to remove ISRO from the list is designed to "foster cooperation in commercial space programs", according to a State Department statement. The decision is the latest in gradual thawing of relations over the last three years between the two countries on space and nuclear cooperation. Earlier this year the two countries agreed to cooperate on remote sensing efforts, with India to build a ground station for the American NPOESS weather satellite system. The decision also comes before a meeting scheduled on Tuesday between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George Bush at the United Nations in New York.