ISRO vs NASA :The history and the future of Space Race

It is year 1947 and it's just been 2 years since the World War II, the conflict between the USA and the Soviet Union was still rising. These two countries emerged as the superpowers after the WW2, but their political ideologies were vastly different and due to their rivalry with each other Cold War started (in 1947). In this time both the countries were working on to be more powerful in terms of nuclear weapons and that's the reason they were developing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to carry nuclear weapons between continents. Both the countries knew if some country gets a way to get to space, they will have a massive advantage in terms of weapons (particularly nuclear weapons) so USSR and USA went into a competition whether who will reach the space first which is known as the Space Race.

In year 1955, the USA announced their plans to launch artificial satellites in the space. Just a few days after US's announcement the USSR also declared that they will also launch Artificial Satellites. Around just after Two years in Oct 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik making history as the World's First Artificial Satellite and established a lead in the space race. Just after a month in Nov 1957 the Soviet Union launched another satellite but with a living creature, it was a dog named Laika, being the first creature to orbit earth. The US caught up in Jan 1958 when they launched their first satellite -'The Explorer I'. The race was so intense that the progress in space technology was rapid. In this while a man from India named Vikram Sarabhai, was watching all this, he felt very inspired seeing the development in space technologies, especially after the launch of Sputnik I he realised that for a country to develop or progress, it is important to make development in space from their sides. By year 1962, he convinced Jawaharlal Nehru, that India should have its own space program. So, this was the birth of ISRO.

Initially, ISRO was named, INCOSPAR- Indian National Committee for Space Research. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru set it up under the Department of Atomic Energy. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai was made the Chairman and that's the reason why Dr Sarabhai is known as the Father of Indian Space Program. At the nascent stage, INCOSPAR had limited infrastructure and resources. That's the reason why people transported rocket parts on cycles and bullock carts. Similarly, INCOSPAR had to set up their control room in the room of a bishop at a church in some village in the middle of nowhere. There have also been some cases where a toilet in Bengaluru was repurposed to be a satellite data receiving centre. Due to the lack of resources, they had to think of alternative options (or Jugaad) a lot. But India's space journey had begun almost immediately. In Nov 1963, only a year after INCOSPAR has been established, India launched its first rocket, this was a sounding rocket, a rocket which carries instruments to take various measurements. It was launched to study the electrons in Earth's Atmosphere. It was supplied by NASA. After the successful launch, the Indian scientists got experience and learned from NASA, and then we made our own sounding rocket. It was named Rohini 75. It was successfully launched on 20th Nov 1967. Some years later, on 15th August 1969, in India's 22nd year of Independence, INCOSPAR was renamed as ISRO because by then, it wasn't just a committee, it had become an organisation. An organisation with the aim of using space technology for the development of the Country. Once again, Dr Sarabhai was made the chairman of this organisation.                                                                                               

Under the leadership of Dr Sarabhai, ISRO's scientists worked diligently in the field of space technology. In 1975, India launched its first artificial satellite named Aryabhata. Unfortunately, Dr Sarabhai wasn't alive to see this achievement. He passed away in 1971 due to Cardiac Arrest. After him, the next ISRO chairman was Dr Satish Dhawan. Aryabhata was launched from the Soviet Union. ISRO took help from Soviet Union as there was an agreement between them.                    

By the way, Dr Satish Dhawan knew such questions would be asked about how much is spent on ISRO and why this much, so when he became ISRO's chairman, he didn't want to stretch the monthly budgets, so he just took a monthly salary of 1 INR, and ISRO continues this frugality even today, therefore, ISRO is the most cost-effective organisation.

In the next decade, the 1980s, new records were set and broken.                                                                           

 Now, India became successful creating their own satellite launch vehicle so that ended the reliance on other countries for launching satellites. Launch vehicle from India were SLV-3, ASLV, PSLV, GSLV.                                                                                                      

 In 1983, ISRO took NASA's help to launch INSAT (Indian National Satellite System) satellite. It is a series of communication satellites stationed in earth's orbit which are used to communicate through radio waves. With this, television broadcasting, weather forcasting, etc was possible in India. It was interesting to see that on one hand, America and Soviet Union were engaged in fierce competition with each other , India had taken help from both space agencies from time to time.             

In April 1984, another record was broken, Rakesh Sharma, a former pilot of the Indian Air Force became the first and the only Indian citizen to travel to space. He onboard the soviet union rocket Soyuz 11, and remained in space for 8 days as a part of soviet interkosmos programme. You might wonder about Kalpana Chawla, though Kalpana Chawla was born in India, she was an Indian origin but not an Indian citizen so technically, she is considered American.

Over the next 2 decades, the ISRO progressed exponentially. In 2008, Chandrayan 1 mission was successful- India's first mission to go to the moon. This was the turning point for the organisation. The world now knew ISRO's potential. By 2013, India's first Mars orbiter mission was launched and India became the first country to enter the Mars' orbit in their first attempt. This mission is briefly explained in a bollywood movie- Mission Mangal. Now, ISRO was counted among the top space agencies of the world. India was viewed as a Space Superpower. India was only the fourth country to go to Mars' orbit.                                  ISRO just did it at a mere cost of $74 million this is just a fraction of cost spent by others. By the way, the hollywood film, Martian had more budged than India's mission, it had a budget of $108 million. If we divide the Mars' orbiter mission cost among our population, then spending only 4INR per person India sent a mission successfully to Mars.

Can ISRO compete with NASA? I here you ask.                                                                                          Well, NASA was founded only four years before ISRO but since then, NASA has undertaken more than 1000 unmanned missions and 245 missions to the outer space. The biggest of which was in 1969 when humans were sent to the moon for the first time in the Apollo 11 mission. The US is the only country to have landed humans on the moon. Apart from this, Keplar Space Telescope has discovered 100s of exoplanets. It is due to NASA, the International Space Station was placed in lower Earth orbit. A spacecraft in where humans can live, work and research. Mars even sent rovers to mars' surface. Curiosity rover in 2015 landed on Mars' surface and found first evidence of water. And the most advanced telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope was also launched by NASA.                                   

Why is NASA so ahead of other space agencies? US thought they were lagging behind when the soviet union launched Sputnik, they wanted to have their own space program in a civilian capacity, due to fierce competition between these two, we witnessed so much innovation. NASA's primary aim is to increase the knowledge of mankind and increase human presence in space. Compare this to ISRO, ISRO wasn't built to compete with other countries. ISRO's aim when established was to develop space technologies for the socio-economic benefit of the nation. NASA have always concentrated in research, exploration and conducting technological experiments. NASA wanted to show off that they were the bigger superpower and they did it with the Apollo 11 mission. On the other hand, ISRO focused on things that can help the nation such as creating a satellite network to allow TV broadcasting, weather forecasting, etc. But the later missions like the Chandrayan and the Mangalyaan focused on exploration.    

 NASA's annual budget is around $24 Billion, compare it with the budget of DoS (Department of space) with $1.7 Billion and ISRO comes under DoS so ISRO gets only a portion of the $1.7 Billion. Approximately, NASA's budget is 20X ISRO's budget. So NASA can spend more money on ambitious and experimental missions.        Government allocated 13,479Cr for ISRO in 2020? Lets make it simple. If India's annual budget is 100INR, Government spends less than 44 paisa for ISRO. At the same time, the Dept of Post gets 14000cr, food subsidy gets 1.15Lakh cr and military of defence gets 4.7Lakh cr.

ISRO spends most of its budget on developing new space technologies and space vehicles and ground stations and the necessary space missions are conducted. So ISRO isn't left with any more money to perform any further missions. But there are things that ISRO has surpassed NASA such as Efficiency, resourcefulness and cost effectiveness. For example, in 2005 NASA launched a solar mission Stereo, that costed $550 million back then. Now ISRO is planning to launch a similar solar mission Aditya L1, at a cost of $55 million only. 10X cheaper than NASA without taking in account of the inflations. Similarly NASA has planned 2 missions on Venus in the near future one will be Veritas Mission in 2028 and Da Vinci mission in 2029 with a total combined cost of a Billion dollars. ISRO has also planned a mission on Venus called the Shukrayaan-1 mission which is to be launched in 2025, i.e. before NASA's attempt and the cost is estimated to be $62-$152 Million again 1/10th of the cost.

There will be 3 most important mission for ISRO moving forward- Gaganyaan, Aditya L1, Chandrayaan-3 all are expected to be launched in 2023. Gaganyaan mission will be the most important as it will be the first manned mission to space in India. ISRO hasn't ever sent humans to space. ISRO will send a crew of 3 people on a spacecraft, It will orbit Earth for 5-7 days at a height of around 400km from the surface and is estimated to cost 9000 Cr INR. Almost everything in this mission is developed in India. Just the spacesuits of the astronauts and the trained is to be provided by the Russian Space Agency ROSCOSMOS. 4 pilots of the Indian Air Force have been already sent for training. Also, the communications team for the mission is being trained by the French Space Agency in CNES. If India tastes success in this mission, India will become only the fourth country to send astronauts to the Lower Earth Orbit in its own capacity.                                        

There will be three phases in Gaganyaan mission, the first two, Gaganyaan I and Gaganyaan II will be unmanned for a safety test, we'll witness these two flights from next year and the final manned mission will happen sometime in 2024.                                                                           

 Aditya L1 will be launched in the first quarter of 2023 this mission will study the sun and is estimated to cost around 378 Cr INR and then ISRO's Chandrayaan 3 mission, ISRO's third mission to the moon, in 2019, Chandrayaan 2 was send to moon, it tried to land but its lander- Vikram Lander, malfunctioned due to software glitch. Chandrayaan 3 will try to have a soft landing on the moon's south pole. ISRO has planned many missions for the future. Such as Shukrayaan-1 to go on Venus in 2024, they have planned a Lunar Polar Exploration mission in collaborating with Japanese aerospace agency in which a lander and a rover will be send on moon in 2025 to explore the region of the south pole. Also, a Mangalyaan-2 mission is also planned.                                                       

  The most ambitious plan in the long-term future but ISRO is to have an Indian Space Station by 2030, it was announced by former ISRO chief K Shivan in 2019. ISRO has launched over 300 satellites for foreign countries which improves the image and reliability of the country but also earns a sizeable profit around 5600Cr in 3 years.

By the way I am proud of ISRO, our scientists are the true heroes of this country, they aren't the people that NASA rejected, but these are the people who themselves have rejected NASA. These are the people who know that India is not perfect but still, they hope to make India a better place for everyone, and they do such brilliant work that the space is the limit!

Here, one thing is for certain, the era when America and the Soviet Union would race to go to space, the era of fierce competition is now over. Today it is not about ISRO vs NASA, it is about ISRO + NASA or any other space agencies. Today, most countries do not want to fight with others, they do not want to compete, instead, they want to collaborate. Because only when they work together and share technologies with each other, ideas to increase efficiency and save costs, by working together, we will see progress of humanity in the truest sense. Not for a country or a few of them, but for entire humanity. We hope that the Indian ecosystem which supported ISRO's growth and empowered scientists to get ISRO to the position it holds today, we continue supporting ISRO similarly in the future as well. Though America and Soviet Union had begun by competing with each other, but by July 1975, US and USSR, had begun collaborating with each other for space. 1975 is the year when the Space Race came to an end. These countries stopped running against each other and ran together.