PM Modi says India a powerhouse in space research; pitches for a SAARC satellite

SRIHARIKOTA (ANDHRA PRADESH): A copy book launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C 23 that put five foreign satellites into the orbit on Monday morning turned into an occasion for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to honour the austere traditions of Indian space scientists and also to urge them to gift a satellite to the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (Saarc) countries in the neighbourhood.
The speech was rather exceptional as it was made in English with the PM occasionally slipping into Hindi. The moment “that fills every Indian’s heart with pride,” also made the PM seek more from the scientists. “Yeh dil mange more,” he said.

While recalling the days when Indian scientists used to carry rocket cones around on bicycles, the PM drove home the point that India is the most cost-effective space power in the world today that can launch a Mars mission that is cheaper than a George Clooney sci-fi thriller.

“All the credit to goes to you scientists. Even today our programme stands out as the most cost-effective one. There is this story of our Mars mission costing less than the Hollywood movie, Gravity. I have heard that Mars mission’s expense is lesser than Gravity. Our scientists have shown the world a new paradigm of engineering and the power of imagination,” he said.

Mangalyaan, India’s interplanetary Mars mission was launched in November 2013 at an estimated cost of $ 72 million while the super hit English movie starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney was reportedly made at an estimated $ 100 million. And Modi wanted more from the scientists: “We provide benefits of telemedicine to Afghanistan and African countries but yeh dil maange more (this heart wants more).”

The catch-line from a cola ad campaign was immortalised by Capt Vikram Batra, an army officer fighting intruders in Kargil in the summer of 1999, who fell to the enemy bullets.

Modi, who witnessed the launch from ISRO’s Mission Control Room here in his first official visit to this spaceport said, “today I ask you, the space community, to take up the challenge of developing a Saarc satellite that we can dedicate to our neighbourhood as a gift from India.

Such a satellite will be helpful in Saarc nations’ fight against poverty and illiteracy, the challenge to progress in scientific field, and will open up avenues to provide opportunities to the youth of Saarc countries,” Modi said.

After a perfect lift off from the First Launch Pad in Satish Dhawan Space Centre here at 9.52 AM which was witnessed, Indian Space Research Organisation’s workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C23 placed all five satellites into their intended orbits, one after the other between 17 and 19 minutes, in textbook precision.