spacetoday.net: India, France to develop earth sciences satellite

Posted: Sat, Nov 13, 2004, 8:24 AM ET (1324 GMT)
The space agencies of France and India agreed Friday to jointly develop an earth observing satellite, after several years of studying such a mission. Representatives of the French space agency CNES and the Indian space agency ISRO signed a memorandum of understanding for the Megha-Tropiques mission at ISRO headquarters in Bangalore. Megha-Tropiques — a name derived from the Sanskrit world for cloud and the French word for tropics — will study the role of the water cycle in climate dynamics in tropical regions. The spacecraft, to be built by ISRO, will carry two instruments provided by CNES and a third jointly developed by CNES and ISRO. The spacecraft will be launched on an Indian PSLV booster in 2008 or 2009. ISRO will spend about $24 million on the mission, while CNES will contribute $62 million. Megha-Tropiques had been under study by the two space agencies for about five years, with a preliminary agreement signed in 2001, but budget problems at CNES threatened the mission. Under previous plans, Megha-Tropiques was to have used a French satellite bus called Proteus, rather than the design based on ISRO's IRS remote sensing satellites that was announced Friday.