INDIA'S NEW SPACE HERO IGNITES A BILLION DREAMS

Shubhanshu Shukla’s historic mission marks a new era for the country’s space research organisation and future explorations

- BY NIDHI RAZDAN | Special to Gulf News

Back in 2014, soon after India successfully launched a robotic probe around the orbit of Mars, The New York Times published a disparaging cartoon which showed a farmer with a cow knocking at a door with a sign — ‘Elite Space Club’, with two men dressed in suits sitting inside reading a newspaper about India’s mission.

There was a huge backlash as many readers complained the cartoon was racist and mocked India. The paper then apologised. Nearly a decade later when India completed a successful mission to the moon’s south pole, people remembered the same cartoon.