Noteworthy: The journey of India's space technology

OM PRAKASH DWIVEDI

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With the successful landing of ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 on the moon’s south pole, the global race to become a space superpower has intensified. Let it be stated that future geopolitical formations will be determined by the power of space technology. The United States, China and Russia are the major players in space technology, but, of late, India has also started punching above its weight in this sector given the robust push rendered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. ISRO’s momentous success in satellite launches, and, also, in mitigating the production cost has pulled many countries’ attention to India. 

But we are talking about the journey of a space superpower, and in this journey, there aren’t any low-hanging fruits. China is our biggest competitor in this journey. As evident, Russia is no longer able to lure foreign countries to sell its technology. Also, the lack of funding and the subsequent sparse budget for technology in the wake of the ongoing Ukraine war has constrained its space programmes. The Western sanction has only exacerbated its problem. Pavel Luzin, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, predicts a gloomy future for the Russian space programme, suggesting that “Russia will be able to launch some satellites. But it will not be an advanced space power. It will not be making steps beyond low Earth orbit”. The recent Luna-25 crash turns Luzin’s prophecy true to some extent.