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More delays in India’s space program

Blaming COVID-19, the head of India’s space agency ISRO, K. Sivan, announced yesterday that they are delaying the first unmanned test flight of their manned space capsule so that it will not fly in 2021 as planned.

ISRO had planned eight launches in 2021, but has so far only flown one, and that launch took place in February. Since then no launches have occurred. Moreover, in 2020 India only completed two launches, far less than planned. In other words, their fear of COVID has essentially shut down their entire government space program for two years.

Meanwhile, China, Russia, SpaceX, and most other private companies roll on, launching frequently and without any negative consequences. The difference tells us that India is over-reacting, and allowing its fearful bureaucracy to run the show. The result is that they are losing ground not only in their effort to fly their first manned mission, but in commercial market share. I am certain that satellite companies that would have flown on their rockets have been shifting their business to SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and many of the other new rocket startups in the U.S.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

3 comments

  • Jeff Wright

    I have also heard it said that jet engine development is troubled. Well, I did well in school-but MTV skateboarding drop-outs have more money than I or my Dad ever made. Maybe it’s that sort of thing.

  • David M. Cook

    The USA didn‘t slow their space program for the “Hong Kong” flu, why should there be any slow-down for the Indian program? One launch in 2021 should be considered a disgrace, and people need to be fired/re-assigned pronto!

  • Edward

    David M. Cook asked: “The USA didn‘t slow their space program for the “Hong Kong” flu, why should there be any slow-down for the Indian program?

    The slowdown was due to. the unreasonable reaction to a flu, a flu that couldn’t even kill 0.1% of the world’s population — although the World Trade Organization fears that the reaction might kill 1.4% of the population through malnutrition.

    If India was ready to do so much damage to itself over such a minor illness, what will it do should a real pandemic come along?

    It is a problem with panic, the reaction becomes worse than the problem that is feared. What is worser still is that the panic continued even after the data showed that the panic reaction was unnecessary and counterproductive.

    The real question is: has the world learned its lesson from its horrific reaction to the Wuhan flu? Has India?

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