United States President Donald Trump’s nominee for the post of national intelligence director Dan Coats has said he was shocked to hear about the Indian Space Research Organisation’s record launch of 104 satellites at one go on February 15. “I was shocked the other day to read that India, in one rocket launch, deposited more than 100 satellites in space,” the former senator said, according to PTI.
During his confirmation hearing for the intelligence chief’s position, Coats further told lawmakers that the US cannot afford to be seen lagging behind in the field. “They may be small in size with different functions and so forth, but one rocket can send up, I think it was 104 platforms,” he said.
The director of national intelligence in the US is in-charge of all major American intelligence agencies, including the Central Investigation Agency.
On February 15, Isro had successfully launched 104 satellites on a single rocket from the Sriharikota base in Andhra Pradesh. The space agency’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C37 carried a payload of 103 nano-satellites from India and five other countries – Israel, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, United States and Switzerland – and an indigenous Cartostat-2, which is an Earth observation instrument.
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