2023-09-04 15:30:00
Ophélie Artaud / Photo credit: R. Satish BABU / AFP 5:30 p.m., September 04, 2023
After successfully landing a spacecraft on the Moon in late August, India launched a probe into the solar system in early September. Two large-scale missions for an unknown space nation, which allocates a lower budget to space exploration. So how is India positioning itself as a major space power?
The Moon, the Sun, Mars and soon Venus. On August 24, as part of its Chandrayaan-3 mission, India managed to land an unmanned spacecraft near the south pole of the Moon. Named Pragyan, this rover performs measurements on our natural satellite, in particular to learn more about the composition of the latter’s surface in an unexplored area.
On September 2, India also began its space program to the solar system, with the launch of the Aditya-L1 probe, which aims to explore the outer layers of the Sun. Two large-scale missions which show that India is positioning itself as a great space power, at a time when many countries are relaunching their space race.
An unknown space nation
Less known than other space nations, India’s interest in space began in the 1960s. “We tend to forget it, but the French and Indian space programs started around at the same time”, explains Mathieu Weiss, representative in India of the French space agency CNES, to FranceInfo
. If the Indian space program was first used to place satellites in space to facilitate the daily life of the population, India launched into space exploration about twenty years ago.
The first attempt to place a probe in orbit around the Moon dates back to 2008 and since then India has considerably increased the budget intended for its space program. However, it remains very modest compared to other great powers. While ISRO (the Indian Space Research Organization) has a budget of 1.6 billion dollars for 2023, that of NASA peaks at 25 billion dollars and that of the European Space Agency (ESA) s amounts to 7.08 billion euros.
India, the next power to send men into space?
A smaller budget that does not prevent India from winning in the race forspace exploration. In 2014, it was the first Asian nation to place a craft in orbit around Mars. And its next objectives are all the more ambitious: India has notably planned to send within two years, jointly with Japan, a probe to the Moon, and also wishes to set off to discover Venus from here. to 2025.
But the country especially hopes to succeed in sending Indian astronauts into space. This manned flight mission could be launched as early as next year. If it succeeded, India would then enter a very closed club: for the moment, only the USSR, Russia, the United States and China have been able to send men into space.
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