India’s Lunar Triumph
How India's relationships with its partners and rivals, and its global role more broadly, evolve remains to be seen. But the country’s achievements in space – most recently the first-ever landing of a lunar rover on the Moon's south pole – undoubtedly strengthen its diplomatic hand, not least because of the respect they inspire in other countries.
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NEW DELHI – In 2014, after the Mars Orbiter Mission, known as Mangalyaan, made India the first Asian country to reach Mars orbit, and the first country ever to do so in its maiden attempt, The New York Times published a cartoon. Well-fed Westerners lounged inside a house labeled “Elite Space Club,” while India, represented by a turbaned peasant with a cow in tow, knocked on the door. It was a patronizing and racist image, and it triggered a furor in India.