Tuesday, November 5, 2013

India launches a rocket to Mars...

India launches a rocket to Mars...  So far everything is working perfectly.  The vehicle is currently in Earth orbit, awaiting a burn to launch it toward Mars in about a month.  If all goes well, it's due to arrive in Mars orbit on September 14 next year.

My own indelible impressions of India were formed way back in the '70s, when I made a brief visit to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and New Delhi.  Those impressions were of abject poverty, overwhelming infrastructure problems, and a people struggling for survival – the very opposite of the kind of nation that could do something as grand and advanced as launching a robotic exploration mission to Mars.

But they've done it – in just 40 years, they've gone from the hopeless-looking mess that I saw to a member of the top tier of nations.  Like all nations, they have plenty of problems – but the magnitude of their improvement in that time is simply stunning...

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