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Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by nithinm on Saturday September 07, 2019 @08:12AM (#20903289)
I think you are unnecessarily making this political. Even if India was successful at landing i dont think the government would count it as 'their' achievement rather would be counted as an achievement of the whole nation. And even 'non-blind' followers would celebrate, given how everyone were on edge of their seats yesterday. Also no one is bashing Nehru because he started ISRO.

Calling the moon landing a government PR gimmick is highly irrespectful to the scientists behind this.

Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by missosoup on Saturday September 07, 2019 @09:06AM (#20903525)
> I think you are unnecessarily making this political

GP is just highlighting that India's ruling party made this unnecessarily political. I'm not sure why it's being downvoted when it's factually accurate and is interesting in the context of the discussion. This is exactly the same thing that was going on in the Soviet Union where space project schedules were dictated by key party dates and celebrations. Not sure if it was a factor here, but multiple Soviet missions suffered due to being pushed to meet politically motivated party deadlines.

Most of the science is indeed onboard the orbiter. The mission was a success for the scientists.

Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by sbmthakur on Saturday September 07, 2019 @11:09AM (#20904207)
> GP is just highlighting that India's ruling party made this unnecessarily political. I'm not sure why it's being downvoted when it's factually accurate and is interesting in the context of the discussion.

Could you share some citations to justify your comment? There is no evidence out there that Chandrayaan was politicized by the Government. ISRO is funded by the Government and Department of Space directly comes under the PM. So, there is bound to be some Government/Minister presence.

Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by mav3rick on Saturday September 07, 2019 @12:20PM (#20904724)
Why should there be something distracting on launch day ?
Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by sbmthakur on Saturday September 07, 2019 @12:23PM (#20904753)
Distracting to whom? The scientists were pretty much focussed with their tasks.
Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by mav3rick on Saturday September 07, 2019 @07:55PM (#20907522)
You are telling me ISRO spent no resources catering to this visit. Even 0.1% of resources, mindshare and energy wasted on landing day is stupid IMO. Do all speeches, visits the next day. Modi was clearly there for a photo op.
Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by thewhitetulip on Sunday September 08, 2019 @12:40AM (#20908656)
To be fair, I remember PM Manmohan Singh also in ISRO live streams so that wasn't it.

My issue is that the 100 day celebration was timed around rover landing and unfortunately rover did not land.

Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by nithinm on Saturday September 07, 2019 @11:22AM (#20904311)
The assumption GP made is that government deliberately planned their 100 days in office and the moon landing date to coincide. But the actual date of mission was different and was posponded last minute(literally) because of a leakage. So if the ruling party (ruling for past 5 years) really wanted the dates to coincide they would have easily scheduled the initial date to coincide.

So there is no 'factual' correctness in the comment. And adding political angle and then comparing India to Soviet based on that is unnecessary.

Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by thewhitetulip on Sunday September 08, 2019 @03:56AM (#20909173)
He has not ruled "since 5yrs"

His second term just started in May

Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by thewhitetulip on Sunday September 08, 2019 @03:55AM (#20909171)
> Also no one is bashing Nehru because he started ISRO

Respectfully, you are not right. Just go down this thread and you'll find one comment which says "Just because Nehru did one thing right doesn't absolve his wrongs"

There has been a coordinated attempt to distort history and malign Nehru. Not claiming that he did not screw up, he did. But he doesn't get credit due to the misinformation campaign

[dead]
Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by hgoel on Saturday September 07, 2019 @08:46AM (#20903439)
The thing was on its way to the Moon already by that time. The mission has been a long time making, it's pretty disrespectful to the effort of all the scientists to limit it to just distraction from Kashmir. Especially since it isn't as if showing an interest in space is a first for Modi.
Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by stochastic_monk on Saturday September 07, 2019 @08:49AM (#20903451)
Modi’s been in power for years. This is an initiative started while he was in office.

My point isn’t that it’s a distraction, but that it’s also about building party power. Kashmir is just the brightest, clearest signal regarding the goals of his administration.

Edit: While the push to complete it came in 2015, it was (see poster below) in the works as far back as 2007, and I was mistaken to think it’s directly attributable to Modi.

Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by valarauko on Saturday September 07, 2019 @09:10AM (#20903548)
Chandrayaan 2 was approved in 2008 by the UPA government of Manmohan Singh. The mission was planned for 2012-13, with Russia to provide the lander. Russian delays forced ISRO to start development on its own lander in 2015.

It's just lazy to lay every action at Modi's feet.

Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by ajonit on Saturday September 07, 2019 @10:45AM (#20904040)
Reading a lot of nytimes or bbc editorial these days? Do you have any idea about the history of Kashmir and how it is infested with Pakistan trained terrorists.?
Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by sbmthakur on Saturday September 07, 2019 @11:12AM (#20904227)
And there has been no terrorism in Kashmir since decades, right?
Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by stochastic_monk on Saturday September 07, 2019 @03:13PM (#20905852)
The existence of terrorism gives you the right to invade?
Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by ajonit on Saturday September 07, 2019 @04:05PM (#20906156)
Invade? Please for god sake read about India and Kashmir first before you reveal your ignorance here. Kashmir has a complex history. It was ALWAYS part of India but governed under a certain constitutional provision. The Indian Govt just revoked that provision.
Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan... by stochastic_monk on Saturday September 07, 2019 @05:18PM (#20906578)
I’m aware of the history of the region. Maybe erupting in fury about whether or not the armed occupation is an invasion isn’t the most productive debate.