United States President Donald Trump's nominee for the Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, said that he was 'shocked' to read about India's successful launch of more than 100 satellites in one go. Coats also suggested that considering India's unprecedented progress, the US needs to buck up.
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"I was shocked the other day to read that India, on one rocket launch, deposited more than 100 satellites in space," Coats told lawmakers on Tuesday during his confirmation hearing for the position of Director of National Intelligence. He also said that the US cannot be seen lagging behind in such advances.
India's space agency Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had launched 104 satellites in a rocket from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh on February 15. ISRO has started taking on large-scale commercial projects to put satellites of other countries in space apart from its success in launching the Chandrayaan.
India, in September 2014, had become the fourth country after the US, Russia and the European Space Agency to successfully guide a spacecraft into orbit around Mars.
"They may be small in size with different functions and so forth, but one rocket can send up, I think it was 104 platforms," Coats said. If confirmed by the Senate, he will be in-charge of major American intelligence agencies, including the CIA.
With the launch of 104 satellites, India has become the first country in the world to successfully carry and launch so many satellites in a single mission. The historic launch reportedly overtook the 2014 Russian record of 37 satellites in a single launch.
Out of the 104 satellites, three were from India, 96 from American companies and the remaining belonged to firms based in Israel, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. Reports state that most of the satellites launched were owned by Planet Labs Inc, a San Francisco-based Earth-imaging company.
