Indian Astronaut Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma (Retd.) on September 1 , 2024, applauded India’s achievement in space science and technology and said that the world is impressed with what India has done.

Sharma said that India has done scientific exploration very cheaply as compared to the others nations who spent a lot more for the same data. “I think the world is very impressed with what India has done. India has achieved success on their very first attempts both for Chandrayaan and for Mangalyaan. And it’s wonderful. And now that Gaganyaan is around the corner,” he said.

“India has done scientific exploration very cheaply, so it’s a very frugal space program that we run which everybody’s envy because other nations are spending a lot more for the same kind of data which we are getting,” Sharma added.

Speaking about the present scenario of space in India and the kind of developments achieved, Rakesh Sharma said, “During my time, there were just two countries that were busy in the space sector--Russia and America--and they were competing with each other, whereas we were quietly doing our applications programme, our satellite programme, primarily because it was helping our economy. So our focus was within our country. Their focus was geopolitical race...But ever since then, I think we realised most of the aims of what space can do for the common people. And we’ve done that.”

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