Indian Space Program

ORLD'S FIRST successful satellite launch by Russians in 1957 heralded the beginning of the Space Age. Initially, critical military applications, national prestige, and ability for advanced scientific exploration were the main drivers for the development of satellites and satellite launch vehicles. As was expected, the governments of the erstwhile-USSR and the U.S. played vital roles in this development at its embryonic stage. In later years, however, many civil-applications of satellites have been identified and extensively developed, and these have become the main motivating forces for the present-day developments in the space programs of many other countries. For the year 1998, as per Euroconsult Report on Government Space Programs, India's civil-space budget stood around $410 million and it is seventh largest in the world. American civil-space budget was $13.5 billion. The other five budgets were of Japan ($1.932 billion), France ($1.427 billion), Germany ($720 million), Italy ($629 million), and Russia ($442 million). Europe's expenditure under the consortium of European Space Agency was $2.9 billion. There have been many world-class achievements by the Indian space program. However, the comparison of the global developmental trends in space industry with the Indian ones indicates growth-rate inadequacies in India in certain areas. The purpose of this article is to discuss the issues concerned.