India and China, who are currently locked in tit-for-tat space war, are entering into an unlikely space collaboration. The space agencies of both countries will collaborate on a proposed satellite constellation for BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).

The new collaboration has been confirmed by Wu YanHua, deputy administrator for the Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA), who was in India last week to take part in a space summit hosted in New Delhi.   

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"We have been in dialogue with India on the BRICS Constellation for disaster risk reduction," Wu said at the summit.

Kiran Kumar, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), also confirmed that "virtual remote sensing satellite constellation for the BRICS nations" is on cards.

The idea for a BRICS satellite was first considered at a space summit in Austria earlier this year where the space agencies of several countries had participated, according to people familiar with the matter.

This is the first time that India and China will be entering a space collaboration. Experts say both countries have always treated their space war as an extension of their diplomatic rivalry, which has defined relationship between the two Asian giants for several decades.

The space programmes of India and China is largely indigenous and their spectacular success over the last two decades has been widely hailed by the scientific community across the world. However, China has relatively edged out the India in space war, as its space programme has achieved comparatively more success.

China sent its first astronaut into space way back in 2003, something the Indian space agency has not still managed to achieve. China also put a satellite in the moon's orbit much earlier than India did.   

However, in 2014 India managed to beat China by becoming first ever Asian country to successfully launch a satellite to Mars.

TagsIndia, china, India and China Space War