The earth’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik, was launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957. Over the last 50 years, human beings have made remarkable progress in exploring space. In 1969, within 12 years after the launch of that first satellite, man could set foot on the moon. To quote Neil Armstrong, the first visitor to the moon, it was “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.

Space technology encompasses a wide range of activities — from fundamental research to advanced technology development — and puts huge demands on the state in terms of financial and infrastructure requirements. Naturally, through all these years, space assets have remained under the control of a few developed and few developing but technologically savvy nations. Despite this, space technologies have benefited all of humankind and have played a major role in areas like meteorology, communication, navigation, remote sensing and resource management. They have also contributed immensely to education and research.

Initially, the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik kicked off a decades-long ‘space race’ between the Soviets and the United States. However, space explorations are a very long-term and ambitious endeavour, and no nation today can embark on such projects alone. Over the last two decades various developments in the space arena have essentially been the result of cooperative international effort. The International Space Station (ISS), a research facility currently being assembled in space, and which involves 16 states, is an excellent example of such international collaboration. The ISS has been continuously inhabited since November 2002 with permanent human presence in space, drawn from various nations.

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