Although Chandrayaan-2 was not able to complete every single aspect of its mission as per ISRO’s expectation, the mission has been a remarkable success in the history of Indian Space Research. ISRO has grown in the past few years and reached the newer heights of space research. It has marked its presence around the globe with its most unique and low-cost missions, making it the most efficient space organization in the world. The scientists at ISRO has made a remarkable contribution for establishing India’s goodwill as a space power on the planet with its satellite and interplanetary space missions. 

On this occasion, here is a long list of some of the most unique facts and accomplishments of India’s very own Space Research Organisation.

1. ISRO launched Chandrayaan 2 on 22nd July 2019 intending to make discoveries that will benefit India and the whole humanity towards exploring our very own solar system & the interstellar space.

2. The cost of Chandrayaan 2 Mission is merely Rs. 978 crores only. This is less than the cost of production of the movie “Interstellar” and also less than half the budget of “Avengers: Endgame”.

3. Chandrayaan-2 is India’s first “All Women Lead Mission”. Muthayya Vanitha & Ritu Karidhal are the Rocket Woman of India behind the ambitious moon mission. Apart from this 30% of Chandrayaan-2’s staff consisted of women.

4. ISRO has made India a key player in the upcoming lucrative commercial space market. This is because ISRO launches space programs which are very low budget and render a low-cost alternative for space programs and satellite launching systems.

5. The approximate budget of NASA, USA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) for the year 2018 was Rs. 1,49,278 crores. On the other hand, is ISRO’s budget for the same year was Rs. 9093 crores only. Even with such a low budget is row has been able to achieve extraordinary accomplishments while solving problems with cost-optimized Engineering solutions.

6. In the year 2018 ISRO successfully launched NAVIC/IRNSS which is India’s navigation system. As per the reports, it can navigate more accurately than GPS. This has helped India in getting listed amongst one of the five countries from the world to have their navigation system.

7. India has registered a record and its name by launching 104 satellites on a single mission in the year 2017 this broke Russia’s record when they sent 37 satellites in a single mission in 2014.

8. India has launched Astrosat Space Telescope which helps India in space monitoring. With the launch of the Astrosat, India became the first country in the world to have its very own telescope in space

9. India is the first developing nation to have successfully installed a telescope in space. Before India, the only developed nations which were able to do so were the United States, Japan Europe and Russia making India V country in the world to do so.

10. India with the help of ISRO’s Mars mission became the first country in the world to successfully reach Mars in a single attempt. ISRO was able to complete the Mars mission at the cost of Rs. 450 crores only. It is the least expensive Mars mission in the world.

11. ISRO is amongst one of the only four space organizations from the world to have reached the red planet.

12. There used to be a time when ISRO’s scientists travelled daily from Thiruvananthapuram in buses, carrying lunch bought at the railway station

13. Also, many rocket parts were carried by the scientists on bicycles from one place to another within the sprawling range of Thumba for India’s first space mission. In 1981, parts of India’s 1st satellite launch mission were transported using bullock carts. 

14. ISRO has been awarded UNESCO-IPDC award for the Kheda Communications Project carried out in Kheda, Gujarat in 1984.

15. ISRO launched Chandrayaan-1 in 2007 which is India’s first mission to the moon. It has been confirmed by NASA in the year 2009 that ISRO’s lunar Mission was the one to detect the evidence of water on the moon further mission. Chandrayaan-1 made India one of the only four countries in the world to successfully land on the lunar surface.

16. If the updates are received from the Vikram Lander in the upcoming days about the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan 2, India would become the only fourth country in the world to have made a soft landing on Moon. Also, India would be the first country in the world to have done a successful soft landing in 1st attempt.

17. ISRO is also working on further missions for the future which includes Aditya-1, a mission dedicated for studying the Sun (Our Solar System’s Star), Gaganyaan: a manned mission to space expected to occur in 2022, Mangalyaan-2: ISRO’s next mission to Mars, Chandrayaan-3: ISRO’s next mission to the moon.

Although we might not have been able to make it right now, still there has been a lot of learning and experience which will help our scientists to make newer and better efforts in the field of space technology and research. Because as said by our PM Narendra Modi in the conference this morning at ISRO “In science, there are no failures, there are also experiments and efforts.”

Also, we congratulate ISRO, India and the world on the almost 100% successful mission which is another major leap for humanity.