Mars Mission: Beyond boundaries of imagination says Narendra Modi

The odds, the PM said, were stacked against the country and its scientists. Of the 51 missions attempted across the world so far, a mere 21 had succeeded. “But we have prevailed,” Modi said. The Mars Orbiter, he said, had been built indigenously, in a pan-Indian effort, stretching from Bangalore to Bhubhaneshwar, and Faridabad to Rajkot. He noted that the spacecraft had been put together in record time with a mere three years of studying its feasibility, which was matter of pride for Indians. “India is the only country to have succeeded in its very first attempt,” Modi stressed, adding that, with today’s success, ISRO joins an elite group of only three other agencies worldwide to have successfully reached Mars. India developed its rocket technology in the face of Western sanctions after the 1974 nuclear test. That’s what Modi meant when he spoke of the “odds”.

“Our journey into space has come a long way from its humble beginnings. It has been a journey of many constraints and resource limitations. I have seen photographs of rocket cones being transported on bicycles. Our first satellite, Aryabhatta, was made in industrial sheds in Bangalore,” he had said in June, after the PSLV launch.

On Wednesday, Modi said innovation, by its very nature, involves risk. “It’s a leap into the dark. Humanity would not have progressed, if we had not taken such leaps into the unknown. And space is indeed the biggest unknown out there.”