On a Shoestring, India Sends Orbiter to Mars on Its First Try

All of India is celebrating the grand achievement of its spacecraft reaching Mars’s orbit. Fewer than half of 51 attempts by nations to reach Mars have worked, and India is alone with success at the first try – and on a low budget at that. Launching Mangalyaan, Hindi for Mars craft, cost $74 million. “An ebullient Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on hand at the Indian Space Research Organization’s command center in Bangalore for the early-morning event and hailed it ‘as a shining symbol of what we are capable of as a nation,’” reports Gardiner Harris for the New York Times. Rivalries and competition often spur such achievements and inspire schoolchildren over the next generation. Much like the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, India was motivated to beat rival China. India is a leading exporter of software and IT services, and the nation’s space expertise will be eyed by ventures from around the globe. – YaleGlobal