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The Indian probe Vikram, August 6, 2019, on the eve of the scheduled date for its moon landing. AFP

On the night of Friday to last Saturday, India failed to land the Vikram lander on the surface of the moon. An operation that only the United States, Russia and China had succeeded. Despite this failure, this mission is a reflection of India's growing ambition in the space sector.

After March and Mangalyaan in 2014, here is Chandrayaan-2 and the Moon in 2019. The two missions have one thing in common: their financial sobriety. It is now customary to say that Indian space projects cost less than a Hollywood blockbuster .

Chandralyaan-2, however, is not a mission at a discount and has a real scientific interest. First there is the mother ship still orbiting our satellite. It embeds indeed 8 instruments intended to study the atmosphere more than holding the Moon, but also to analyze and map the surface. But this ship was mainly on board Vikram, the lander who could not land on the south lunar pole. Despite this failure, it alone is a technological feat for a country like India.

For a few years, the country has indeed revised its ambitions upward in space. " That's what's interesting, " notes Isabelle Sourbès-Verger, CNRS researcher: " The lander Vikram is in honor of Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space program ." It was this scientist who laid the foundation stones of the space program in the 1970s. " At the time, he was very insistent that India did not have the shoulders to carry out major exploration missions. He campaigned for the country facing missions directly useful to society, such as telecommunications or Earth observation. "

Change of robbed

It is for this reason that the Indian space program enjoys a good coast with the population. Its applications are in fact used daily by fishermen, farmers ... With its three families of launchers allowing it to cover most terrestrial orbits, India has indeed observation, telecommunication and, to a lesser extent, military satellites. . But with Mangalyaan and now Chandrayaan, the country is moving up a gear. " India has moved beyond this stage, and is now a sufficiently large and mature power to be able to conduct exploration programs and scientific programs. "

International cooperation

Several reasons explain this evolution of the DNA of the Indian space. First of all, there is the technical progress made by ISRO, its space agency. There is also another factor that marks a clear difference from China, its regional rival; international cooperation: " Since the beginning of its program, India has been playing very well with its 'non-aligned' status of the time, which allowed it to cooperate with Russians, Europeans and Americans" , explains Isabelle Sourbès-Verger. In contrast, China suffers from ITAR standards put in place by the Americans, which prevent US components often used in the construction of satellites to fly on Chinese rockets. NASA also has a formal ban on cooperating with the CNSA, its Chinese counterpart.

The Indian space program is therefore increasingly ambitious. This will not stop, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his intention to see his country develop its manned flight program. The goal of seeing the first Indian astronauts - the gaganautes, literally the " sky walkers " - flying in 2022. The date seems optimistic, however. Even though the Indian program is progressing, the country tends to slide its programs. One way though, to take the time it takes to do things right.