The Han in a Spacesuit

A Threat in Being

Abstract

Since ages, space has been, and will be for the near future, a mysterious and awe-inspiring, gravityless vacuum, inaccessible to humans, barring a few exceptions. Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), aliens, distant civilisations, Star Wars are still within the realm of fantasy or make believe. Space has also always been about dual use: civilian research and military uses go hand-in-hand. The last two decades have seen some of the fastest growth in movement towards outer space, with China and India leaping into the black yonder with renewed zeal. Utilisation of space has always been about national prestige, with the space race shot off by then USSR, with the launching of the Sputnik-1 into space, followed by the entry of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space four years later. This incensed the pride of the Americans and they finally managed to salvage it by sending, first, Astronaut Alan Shepard into space soon after, and then much later, Neil Armstrong, to the Moon. This was followed by a race for space between the two world powers, subsiding a bit only when the USSR collapsed. It wasn’t too long before the Chinese jumped into the fray and rapidly started gaining space in space. The Indians were not to be left behind and like the proverbial tortoise, slowly and steadily, proved their calibre in space.