India is revolutionizing its approach to space exploration. To find out why, BBC science journalist Alok Jha follows preparations for the country’s first human spaceflight mission.
For decades, India focused its space program on limited, inexpensive projects directly benefiting its citizens, such as weather satellites and communications networks. But in recent years, the country earned global recognition with a series of audacious exploratory missions – sending probes to the lunar south pole and Mars. Now, the most ambitious mission yet is underway: India will send humans into space.
As India’s historic human spaceflight launch approaches, Alok Jha reflects on the hopes and fears driving not only this country’s space program, but the entire 21st-Century space age.
