Is India The Next Space Superpower?
the whole world knows about nasa the american space agency was officially formed in 1958 and its long history is undoubtedly littered with iconic groundbreaking moments but in the 21st century is another space agency about to take the spotlight this is unveiled and today we're answering the extraordinary question is india the next space superpower are you a fiend for facts are you constantly curious then why not subscribe to unveiled for more clips like this one and ring the bell for more fascinating content today despite all the much publicized cuts nasa is the space agency with the biggest budget by far but it's certainly not the only successful space organization in the world russia's ross cosmos has long stood as nasa's most prominent competitor followed closely in more recent years by the european space agency close behind and catching up very quickly though are the final three of the world's big six agencies the china national space administration the japan aerospace exploration agency and the indian space research organization the cnsa jaxa and isro isro currently has a smaller budget than five of those six and is only just ahead of japan but as it was founded in 1969 it's also older than most of them too except nasa the soviet space program does technically date back further but roscosmos and its current guys doesn't as it was only founded in 1992 isro was actually formed less than a month after the apollo 11 moon landings but according to the agency's leaders at the time it didn't have any intention of directly following in america's footsteps the scientist and astronomer vikram sarabhai is remembered as the driving force who most encouraged india to enter into space exploration sarabhai believed that though india couldn't economically rival the likes of the us and russia it needed to develop advanced technology as soon as possible in order to earn a place on the international stage it shouldn't be left behind because if it was it would suffer in the long term first on the agenda for isro then was developing satellites and designing and building the launch vehicles needed to send those satellites up the satellites themselves turned out to be much easier and faster to build than most had anticipated and in 1975 just six years after isro was born the first indian satellite was sent into orbit it was called aryabhatta and was launched with help from the ussr it took another five years for india to develop a launch vehicle of its own the slv-3 but that first satellite was certainly remarkable and is today held as a breakthrough moment for india in space since then though isro has enjoyed many red letter days and has broken all kinds of records especially in recent years in 2014 its mangalyan space probe a mars orbiter mission successfully reached martian orbit making isro only the fourth agency to put an object into orbit around the red planet after nasa the soviets and the issa more impressively still isro is the only one to have managed that feat on the first attempt china's cnsa by comparison launched the yanghua one probe two years before mongolian but despite the cnsa's far larger budget that probe failed to even get out of earth's orbit let alone into mars's elsewhere in 2017 isro broke the record for the most satellites launched in a single rocket when it sent 104 into space on pslv c37 again india had pushed itself to the top table of space it hasn't all been unbridled success however initially india had a little less luck with its ongoing chandrayaan lunar program for example the orbiter chandrayaan-1 lasted just half of its intended mission duration and the vikram lander on chandrayaan-2 mistakenly crashed into the moon rather than soft landing on it to hastily bring that mission to a quick end as well even so isro still has a reputation for achieving a far higher success rate compared to other space agencies some of this is by design some is because it's attempting things after other organizations have already honed a method the soviet union for instance didn't have a successful mars mission until mars iii in 1971 that was 11 years after its first attempt in 1960 but also 43 years before india's mongolian orbiter nevertheless because isro isn't trying to directly compete with russia or america and because its budget is smaller than all other major agencies it has always prioritized being cost effective and efficient moving gently through space to ensure as little goes wrong as possible it may seem like trying to save money is at odds with space exploration but the results are beginning to speak for themselves in recent years isro has opened up to working with private space firms it offers space startups an alternative to the often costly partnerships with american or european agencies and while some of these startups will inevitably fizzle away some will continue to grow and it's isro's plan to be right at the heart of it to become a hub for modern space travel all while staying true to the philosophy set out by sarabhai in the 1960s success on a small budget in 2020 isro spent only 1.9 billion u.s dollars on its various initiatives by contrast nasa parted with 22 billion more than 11 times as much which isn't to say that nasa's way is the wrong way it is after all still comfortably the world leader when it comes to space travel but isro has still managed to enter the conversation in a big way even without the big payout as sarabhai had hoped the indian space program has earned its place on the international stage and as isro's first crewed mission gaganyan is on track to launch in 2022 all eyes are on india to see whether it will again be successful but still there's arguably some distance to go between where it is now and a potential space superpower in the future if the gaganyan mission does go ahead india will become only the fourth country in the world to send an astronaut into space on a craft they built themselves after russia the us and china if that's a measure of becoming a superpower then india is well on track and it looks set to reach that milestone very soon as of 2020 it also has the fourth highest number of satellites in orbit around the earth and is one of only four countries with more than 100 in operation again alongside america russia and china on the other hand while there have been more than 100 astronauts aboard the international space station since it started hosting crewed missions in the year 2000 not one of those astronauts has been from india in some ways isro is becoming more and more a mainstay in space but there are still ways in which it could improve and ways in which it could increase its off-earth influence what's clear is that the foundations for isro are extremely solid it has a long busy and mostly successful space travel history india as a nation in general is also a world leader by various other measures it's the second most populous nation in the world with only china ahead of it and is one of only two countries with a population of more than a billion people it's also a nuclear force with around 150 warheads at its disposal so as space travel progress has historically gone hand in hand with weapons development india is well paced there as well considering too that india only gained independence in 1947 the progress made by isro is quite incredible and it certainly dwarfs the progress made by the british space program in the time since the british empire withdrew shortly after world war ii the 21st century has in general seen a renewed interest in space exploration all around the globe but perhaps nowhere more so than india isro may have been founded too late to compete with the americans and the soviets in the original race to the moon but with the us russia and china all planning new lunar missions in the near future india is clearly and confidently entering the fray as well isro also has its own plans for mars as well as an ever growing list of private companies and initiatives that it is backing supporting and partnering with we should expect to hear about the omanats more and more frequently over the next few years the omanat is the title given to isro astronauts just as russia has its cosmonauts so with crude missions approaching ever closer on the horizon these will be the people tasked with turning a nation's cosmological dreams into a pioneering reality now it's very much a case of watch this space because that's
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