Infinity in 15 kilograms
While space is hard, there are also different kinds of hardness. For example, on April 15, ISRO issued a press release saying it had successfully tested nozzles made of a carbon-carbon composite that…
PSLV
8 posts
NYT's profile of India's space startup scene
The New York Times published a 'profile' of the Indian spaceflight startup scene on July 4. The article is typical in that: a) by virtue of being published by one of the world's most-read…
Review: 'Mission Mangal' (2019)
This review assumes Tanul Thakur’s review as a preamble. There's the argument that ISRO isn't doing much by way of public outreach and trust in the media is at a low, and for many people – mo…
Finding trash in the dumpster
Just as there's no merit in writing a piece that is confused and incomplete, there's no merit in digging through a dumpster and complaining that there's trash. However, that doesn't me…
Moon mission pushed to October, so we wait
So, the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO's) Chandrayaan 2 mission to the Moon has been pushed to October from April. Delays of this sort are to be expected for missions of this scale…
ISRO v. SpaceX doesn't make sense
Though I've never met the guy, I don't hold Pallava Bagla in very high regard because his stories – particularly of the Indian space programme – for NDTV have often reeked of simplistic concer…
Is it so blasphemous to think ISRO ought not to be compared to other space agencies?
Is it so hard to consider the possibility that we might get a better sense of ISRO's activities if we did not keep comparing it to those of other space agencies?…
The GSLV Mk-III is no jugaad
Scroll December 18, 2014 (Note: This piece was written in the future-tense and published before ISRO's successful test flight this morning.) Come Thursday, the Indian Space Research Organisation…