India's Space Diplomacy In 2017: Where Pakistan Is Standing?
“Scientific thought and its creation is the common and shared heritage of mankind.” – Prof. Dr. Abdus Salam The year is 1961 in history, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, became the first human to journey into outer space. A charismatic 35 th President of United States – John F. Kennedy has taken oath and announces his goal to initiate a project to put “man on the moon” – Apollo program. Something similarly historic is happening in Pakistan, where globally renowned physicist Nobel Laureate Prof. Dr. Abdus Salam is convincing President of Pakistan Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan to set up a first space agency in the subcontinent. In September that year, Prof. Salam set up the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) headquartered in Karachi. In 1962, SUPARCO with the help from NASA launches its first rocket, Rehbar I, from Karachi shoreline and becomes the third Asian country to launch rockets after Israel and Japan. But despite its head start, the SUPARCO today i...