I was about 10 years old when the Soviet Union launched its first Sputnik 1 satellite on 4 October 1957, creating headlines that awed and shocked the world. It opened a new frontier, and its significance was evident to those with a scientific temper.
My parents had shifted to Gurgaon after the country’s partition in 1947, and there was an excellent missionary school then there, headed by the respected Mr Paul as Principal. The very next morning, he called a congregation of us little children and tried to explain that it was the beginning of a dream for the Mankind to go to the Sky. His words were not far off from what Neil Armstrong, the first US astronaut to land on the moon on 21 July 1969, said: One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind.
After Moscow launched the Space Age, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) observed “History Changed” that day, and aggressively followed with a programme and launched Explorer 1 on 31 January 1958 into space.
Mr Paul’s words were prophetic and inspiring. I wanted to be Fighter Pilot and then an Astronaut. Although I have visited IAF’s Test Pilots School and Aircraft Systems and Testing Establishment (ASTE) as a journalist, I have had no chance to be among some of my esteemed friends due to spectacles and weak eyesight. But I understand, appreciate, and share the passion and Dreams Come True of the four lucky astronauts selected by Indian Air Force and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for India’s Chandrayaan Moon Mission (Cover Sory).
India had ambitiously set up ISRO on 15 August 1969, ably guided by Dr Vikram Sarabhai, a physicist who played a pioneering role in both Space and Nuclear research along with Dr Homi J Bhabha and Dr HN Sethna. Mrs Indira Gandhi, whose Prime Minister’s Office directly controlled these programmes, gave them a free hand.
India sent its first astronaut – or Cosmonaut – Sqn Ldr Rakesh Sharma, a Test Pilot, to space aboard the Soviet spacecraft, Soyuz T-11, in the company of two Russian cosmonauts, mission Commander Yury Malyshev and Flight Engineer Gennady Strekalov, to the Soviet space station Salyut 7 in 1984.
It’s been a long, steady, patient and encouraging journey since. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced the names of four astronauts for India’s coming Moon Mission. The India Strategic family joins him and all Indians in wishing them Luck and Success.
— Gulshan Rai Luthra
