On October 16, 2023, the chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), S Somanath, said that the experts who were given the task of developing the complex rocket missions in the United States of America appealed to India to share the space technology with them after seeing and witnessing the success of India’s third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft.
Speaking at an event in Rameswaram, he said that the times have changed, and India has the capacity to build the best of the best rockets and devices, and this is the reason why PM Narendra Modi has opened the space sector to private players. He was speaking to a group of students at a programme organised by the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam’s Foundation to commemorate the late former president’s 92nd birth anniversary.
ISRO Chief Address
“Our Country is a powerful nation. Do you understand that? Our knowledge and intelligence level in the country is one of the best in the world In Chandrayaan-3, when we designed the spacecraft, we invited a team from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA-JPL who do all the rockets and the most difficult mission,” the ISRO chief said.
About five to six people from NASA-JPL came to the headquarters of ISRO, and we explained to them everything related to and about Chandrayaan-3. That was before the soft landing took place on August 23, 2023. We explained how we designed it, how our engineers made it, and how we were planning to land on the moon’s surface, and they said no comments, and everything was going to be good.
Referring to his recent participation in a space conference, Somanath said “Everybody from NASA and the space agencies of Europe, China and the rest of the world congratulated us for the success of Chandrayaan-3. Why are they doing it? Because they realise that India is going to be a powerful nation. You must have confidence in it. We must also think that we were once a very powerful nation with so much capacity. And we were drained out due to various reasons.
Somanath appealed to the young audience at the venue to follow the ideology of former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. He said “The most powerful tool is to dream. Kalam sir said that you should dream when you are awake and not at night,” he added
“And at the launch of Chandrayaan-10, one of you will go sitting inside the rocket and most probably a girl child. A girl astronaut will go from India and then land on the Moon (in Chandrayaan-10 mission),” he said, amid applause from the students.
Demand by US Experts
The US Experts also said one thing, “Look at these scientific instruments, they are very cheap. Very easy to build, and they are advanced How did you build it? Why don’t you sell these instruments to America? they were asking So you students understand how times have changed. We are capable of building the best equipment, the best devices, and the best rockets in India. That is why our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has opened up the space sector.
Other Indian Space Agencies
The ISRO Chief further said, “Now we are telling you people to come and build rockets and satellites and make our nations more powerful in space technology. It is not only ISRO; everybody can do it in space. There is one company in Chennai called Agnikul and another one in Hyderabad called Skyroot. There are at least five companies today that are building rockets and satellites
About the JPL
The Joint Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a research and development organisation which is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the USA, and it is being managed by the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH) in the US.
