India, April 19 -- Wing Commander (retired) Rakesh Sharma recently completed 35 years of being the first Indian to have ever set foot in space. He talked to Down To Earth about the exhilarating moment, space exploration, humans as multi-planetary species, ISRO's plan to send a humanoid to space and weaponisation of space in a four-part series. Here is the third one:
The delay in formulation of the Gaganyaan Mission is not due to a deficit in conceptualisation. It is a question of prioritisation. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was translating the vision of Vikram Sarabhai into reality and in that sense, the Indian space programme has been a very focused and relevant one for a developing nation, which, to begin with, one would...