India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLVC-21 lifts off, carrying one French and one Japanese satellite from a launch pad in Sriharikota, Sunday. — APNEW DELHI — India's national space organization has marked its 100th mission by launching French and Japanese satellites. The Indian Space Research Organization said Sunday's launch of a French observation satellite and a Japanese microsatellite was a success. India has had an active space program since the 1960s and has launched scores of satellites for itself and other countries. In 2008, it successfully sent a probe to the moon that detected evidence of water on the lunar surface for the first time. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh defended spending millions of dollars on space exploration despite many people in the country living in grinding poverty. India plans to launch a probe to orbit Mars next year at an estimated cost of four to five billion rupees ($70-90 million), and hopes to send its first manned mission to space in 2016. “Questions are sometimes asked about whether a poor country like India can afford a space program and whether the funds spent on space exploration, albeit modest, could be better utilized elsewhere," Singh said in a speech. “This misses the point that a nation's state of development is finally a product of its technological prowess." India comes 134th among 187 countries in the United Nations' overall development rankings, while a survey earlier this year revealed that 42 percent of Indian children aged under five are underweight due to malnutrition. Commenting on India's 100th space mission, the prime minister said: “India is justly proud of its space scientists, who have overcome immense odds to set up world-class facilities and develop advanced technologies." In September 2009, India's Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe discovered water on the moon, boosting the country's credibility among more experienced space-faring nations. But the space program suffered a setback in December 2010 when a satellite launch vehicle blew up and fell into the Bay of Bengal after veering from its intended flight path. — Agencies
