ABSTRACT
After the USSR and the USA heralded the dawn of the space age in 1957, almost all countries took it for granted at the outset that major space programmes were beyond their financial scope. Even the industrialized nations of Europe, with the possible exception of France, shared this outlook. The Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, stated in early 1960 that although India was ‘high up in the list of advanced countries’ in the field of atomic energy, it could not go far in space exploration because of its want of resources. 1 Yet the appeal of space remained strong, and this chapter sets out to analyse the appeal and implementation of such drives for India. 2
