Former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) G Madhavan Nair has said that China has made enormous strides in manned space missions, has overtaken India in the space race by at least a decade. The Chinese are very focused about their space programme and they have already put ten astronauts into space. He said that the Chinese programme was almost a ‘carbon copy’ of the manned space flight proposals, he himself had submitted to the Indian Government five years ago.
Madhavan Nair regretted,‘’Those dreams have been shattered. There are a lot of similarities between the proposals I submitted and what they are now pursuing. India could have established supremacy in the space race had his proposals been pursued."
ISRO as per plan,is ready with the ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission, as on schedule on October 28. India plans to launch its MOM spacecraft on the first day (October 28) of the launch window which remains open till November 19.Once launched, MOM would go around the earth for 20-25 days before embarking on a nine month voyage to the red planet.Mars Orbiter Mission is India's first interplanetary mission to planet Mars with an orbiter craft designed to orbit Mars in an elliptical orbit.
Moreover the Mission is primarily technological mission considering the critical mission operations and stringent requirements on propulsion and other bus systems of spacecraft. The basic objectives of this Indian mission to Mars is to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission.