Sunday, November 16, 2008

Color Me Less Than Impressed

I hate to piss on anyone's parade here, but come on...

Chandrayaan-I reaches its final resting orbit

BANGALORE: India's unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 on Wednesday successfully entered the operational lunar orbit after ISRO scientists carried out final orbit reduction manoeuvre, lasting one minute.

[...]

On November 9, India became the fifth member of the global moon club with Chandrayaan-1 entering the lunar orbit at 5.04 pm (IST). The other four members are the US, Russia (former Soviet Union), Japan, China and members of European Space Agency (ESA).

[...]

Experts said it was a significant feat because India's moonshot was successful in the very first attempt — something that even major space powers like the US and Russia could not achieve. The man who launched the Indian moon mission, Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, had said, "It's undoubtedly a great moment for India because nearly 50% of the moon missions of other countries have not been successful."


Let's recap.

Nearly four decades ago, at a time when you'd need a warehouse the size of Rhode Island to house a computer with the computational capacities of a Commodore Vic-20, we had guys playing golf on the surface of the moon.

Last week, India put an unmanned spacecraft into lunar orbit.

On their first try!