New Delhi: Another astronaut of Indian-origin, Sunita Williams, is on her way to outer space.
The connection between the Indian Space Program and National Aeronautical and Space Agency (NASA) goes back all the way to a time when the only thing flying were our dreams.
The association began on November 21, 1963 at 1825 hrs (IST). A Nike-Apache rocket launches from Thumba in Kerala, signalling the beginning of India's space programme. The rocket was from the NASA of the United States of America.
By the next year, Indian scientists were receiving data directly from NASA's scientific satellites.
In 1969, NASA loaned its ATS-6 satellite to India for broadcasting educational TV programmes. It resulted in the instructional TV experiment in 1975.
It was the first time that direct reception of TV programmes beamed via satellite was being attempted anywhere in the world at this scale.
Interestingly, the relationship with NASA persisted despite India's growing closeness with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Indian scientists kept going to work for NASA.
Some estimates project as many as four out of every 10 NASA scientists could be of Indian origin - prominent among them Prasun Desai, who heads the team working on the entry and landing procedures of the Mars Rovers.
Another name in the list is that of Amitabh Ghosh, who specialises on geological data from Mars.
But there have been the hoaxes too. The NASA photographs that supposedly showed a 1,75,000-year-old man-made bridge connecting India and Sri Lanka and the boy who duped the Indian media.
Saurabh Singh supposedly maxed a NASA talent test; a hoax that gave hope to a nation before the reality check happened.
But the bottom line is that the future seems to hold a lot of promise for both NASA and India.
Comments
0 comment