Word: chandrayaan
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...1960s, the Bangalore-based organization's very existence was questioned by critics - both inside and outside India - who said a poor country should worry about feeding hungry millions before firing rockets into space. Last month, there were allegations of incompetence after India's first-ever lunar probe, Chandrayaan-I, was lost when its communications system shut down. So this week's announcement that the same probe, fitted with a NASA research instrument, had found water on the surface of the moon (and managed to send the data back to earth before losing contact) was a welcome reason to cheer...
Indian newspapers were ecstatic: "One Big Step For India, A Giant Leap for Mankind," read the headline in the Times of India. ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair was beaming when he told reporters on Friday that "India should be proud that Chandrayaan discovered water on the moon It is acknowledged the world over that this is a real discovery and a path-breaking event for the Indian space agency." (See pictures of Earth from space...
...Chandrayaan-I was launched last October; the ISRO lost contact with it in late August. At the time, critics questioned the program's worth and the need for future missions. But ISRO scientists say they simply underestimated the radiation levels the probe and its communication system would face, problems they will now fix. The water discovery was vindication that they had got a lot right and the hiccup, said chairman Nair last week, was all part of a normal learning curve. The ISRO, Nair told reporters, is "100% satisfied with the mission's objectives." (See the top 50 space moments...
...after overseeing successful nuclear tests in 1998 and riding high on nationalist euphoria over breaching international non-proliferation norms, the right-wing, BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government agreed to an ambitious moon program. Then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who approved Chandrayaan-I at the Independence Day function on August 15, 2003, said he wanted India's space program to become one of the best in the world. Supporters of the program argued that a lunar mission would provide untold technological spin-offs. Many of those same enthusiasts now say they have been vindicated. Operating a satellite...
...larger share of the increasingly competitive commercial satellite launch market. On Thursday, it launched six European and Turkish satellites from its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. "[The] returns, in terms of the science, the technology, inspiration, stature, prospects for international cooperation... are immense," K. Kasturirangan, former ISRO chairman who conceived Chandrayaan-I, told TIME before the launch. It doesn't hurt that the country's celebrating...
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