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in 1961 the soviet union launched the
first human into space
in 1969 america put the first man on the
moon
in 2019 china landed the first
spacecraft on the far side of the moon
since day one the space flight industry
has been extremely competitive
with countries developing the most
advanced technologies
and pushing the boundaries of what
humans are capable of
but one country that isn't often
mentioned in the history of space flight
is india for decades the indian space
agency has been quietly working away
and achieving some incredible results in
this video we're going to look at the
efficiency of india's space program
we're also going to look at its
relationship with private space
companies
and how that could change in the future
when india began their space program in
1969 they entered into a world
dominated by america and the soviet
union
in the states people were living well
and businesses were booming with the new
advancements in technology
in india the people had nothing and with
a controlling government
even food was hard to come by it was a
strange time to start a space program
apollo 11 had just returned from the
moon and nasa were spending around 40
billion dollars each year in today's
money
india came onto the scene with a mere 1
billion dollars
so in order to make any impact in the
space community they had to get
smart since day one
india was focused on using their space
program to improve aspects of their own
country
things like telephone communication and
weather forecasts were almost
non-existent at the time
and for a country that was based on
agriculture this was a big problem
so over the next decade india began
launching satellites to provide
communications
and important weather data to improve
the farming industry
but how did they manage to do all of
this on such a tight budget
the early days of india's space program
were extremely humble
rocket parts were often transported by
bike and larger components like
satellites were transported by bull
carts
during this time india's space program
employed just
3 000 workers to put this into
perspective
nasa was employing around 200 000
workers
during the apollo program nowadays the
employee count between isro
and nasa is much more similar but the
efficiencies in
india's infrastructure can still be seen
today
india's base program pays far less for
its skilled workforce
than any other space agency the average
aerospace engineer in india gets paid
around ten thousand dollars whereas in
america the same job
would pay eight times more this massive
difference in cost
allows india to undercut other countries
on the cost to manufacture each rocket
although most of india's rockets are
only designed to launch
small payloads in some cases the cost
for launching on an indian rocket
is 70 percent cheaper than other options
the pslv is india's workhorse rocket
and it has a surprisingly low launch
cost of just
15 million dollars in 2017
it pulled off a mission that stunned
space programs around the world by
launching an incredible 104
satellites into orbit despite the extra
engineering required to pull this off
sharing the launch cost between so many
people made the cost for each satellite
company
extremely cheap but india's cheap
workforce is only half
of what makes their rockets so
affordable instead of outsourcing rocket
parts to foreign companies
india gets most of its materials from
local companies
although they might be able to find more
advanced components elsewhere
keeping all of the parts in-house saves
india up to 50 in overall costs
utilizing the expertise of other
companies is a common theme in
spaceflight
now that the technology required to get
into orbit is much more obtainable
it has allowed private companies like
spacex and rocket lab
to make a massive impact in the space
flight community
but this is one area that holds india
back
although it's not illegal for india's
private companies to enter
space the laws and regulations make it
almost impossible for private space
ventures to be set up
until recently a new space bill has been
written to allow the private sector to
develop their own rockets and satellites
traditionally isro have contracted
private companies
to design and manufacture their rockets
and spacecraft
now private companies can spend their
own time and money in developing more
advanced
spacecraft for interplanetary missions
although
india has experience with this their
interplanetary missions in the past
have been limited in terms of what they
can discover
but this isn't a fault of india's space
program this
is by choice a common theme that runs
through india's space program is high
ambition paired with a low budget
india always wanted to go to the moon
and mars and they didn't let their small
budget stop them
the mars orbiter mission which launched
in 2013
made india only the fourth space agency
to successfully get to mars
and they did it on their first attempt
they also did this on a shoestring
budget of just 74 million dollars
a fraction of what other space agencies
typically spend
apart from making their spacecraft small
and simple
india likes to keep the overall duration
of the mission
as short as possible nasa has multiple
missions that have spanned decades
and racked up enormous running costs
from the initial conception to the end
of operation
india's missions are designed to only
run for a few years
so although india's capabilities and
achievements might not be on the same
scale as nasa
their incredible ambition and clever
cost efficiency
has allowed them to become one of the
world's key players in the space
community
from their humble beginnings cycling
rocket parts back and forth
to launching spacecraft to other planets
their ability to achieve so much with so
little
is an inspiring story which sums up the
indian spirit
in order to continue being one of the
greatest space agencies in the world
india will need to hire the next
generation of talented and creative
engineers
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thank you very much for watching
and i'll see you in the next video
[Music]
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