Chandrayaan-1 and China’s spacewalk should be a ‘wake-up call’ for America: Obama

Washington: Democratic Presidential nominee Barak Obama has said that India's Chandrayaan-1 unmanned mission to the moon should be a wake up call to America, and should remind the nation that it was getting complacent or sloppy about maintaining its position as the foremost nation in space exploration.

Call on the US to revitalise its space programme, Obama sounded the alarm bell, saying with India launching its first unmanned lunar spacecraft close on the heels of China's first spacewalk, the two events should remind the US just how urgent it to revitalise the space programme ''if we are to remain the undisputed leader in space, science, and technology''.

Obama promised to revitalise the US space programme as the President of the United States, saying that he would work to reduce the gap between the Space Shuttle's retirement and the induction of its next-generation successor.

He also said that he would increase funding for NASA by an additional $2 billion, while cautioning that ''more money alone is not enough''. He said that the US should not only retain its space workforce so that it does not let other nations surpass its technical capabilities, but it would also need to train new scientists and engineers for the next generation.

The United States India Business Council (USIBC), representing around 280 of the largest US companies investing in India has also hailed the mission as the beginning of long "relationship promoting the opening of the frontier of outer space.''

Referring to an earlier time when President John F Kennedy inspired an entire generation in the 1960s, Ron Somers, President of the US-India Business Council (USIBC) recalled President Kennedy's words about the importance of space exploration. President Kennedy had said, 'It is one of the great adventures of all time….and no Nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race to space.'

''This unique technology partnership in civil space exploration, which taps India's highly skilled scientific expertise with American instrumentation furnished by Raytheon, beckons what we hope will be a long and mutually beneficial relationship promoting the opening of the frontier of outer space,'' Ron Somers said.