THE SKY SO HIGH

WRITTEN BY: ANURAG SAHOO

"THAT ONE STEP FOR A MAN IS A GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND", these are the historic words which NEIL ARMSTRONG told to EARTH after placing his left foot on the surface on moon at 2.56 am UTC on July 21, 1969. Today the nations have united themselves to unravel one of mankind’s greatest curiosities. Man has always wanted to know what lies outside our planet. Today, the technology required has been achieved as on 1969, NASA send 3 men to set their foot on MOON.

In 2011, the INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION will be fully operational. It is a joint project by NASA, European Space Agency, Russia’s MIR space programme and Japan’s KIBO. Many satellites hover around the orbit of the Earth to help us in telecommunications, TV transmission and other experiments. India’s ISRO is no exception as it launches its INSAT satellites in PSLV (POLAR SATELLITE LAUNCH VEHICLE). Also India added another chapter in history by becoming the 4th nation to plant its flag on Moon’s surface with the successful CHANDRAYAAN-1 which although ended abruptly due to technical fatalities but has succeeded in achieving all major objectives. The Indian government has also planned for sending a lunar rover vehicle in the next phase which is named as CHANDRAYAAN-2. Chandrayaan-1 was instrumental in finding traces of water on moon’s surface. NASA has already send MARS rover to the red planet. It is also believed that INDIA’S SOLAR PROBE which is known ADITYA is expected to be launched in 2012. Even private ventures like VIRGIN GALATIC has already planned for space tourism in the year 2010 and surprisingly all the tickets of the first flight is sold out.

The sky may be very high but it is no match to our levels of nature defying curiosity which even challenges that we will conquer THE SKY SO HIGH.