? Oct. 22,2008. The 316-tonne PSLV C11, an upgraded version of ISRO's workhorse PSLV, blasted off from Sriharikota in AP with the 1,380-kg Chandrayaan-1, making India the sixth nation to launch a moon mission.

The anxiety at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre was palpable. As the countdown ended, ISRO's chairman G. Madhavan Nair and his team could hardly believe their eyes. ISRO's pride was skyrocketing.

Despite their optimism, it was a nail-biting launch when Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) lifted off with 10 satellites from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on April 28.

The National Democratic Alliance government did it-undermining the autonomy of a scientific department called the Archaeological Survey of India. The United Progressive Alliance has compounded it by withdrawing a scientific body's opinion on a matter on which it is eminently competent, and statutorily obliged, to give its view.

Nine months ago, India's big power ambitions suffered a setback. The 3,000-km range Agni-3, launched for the first time last July from Wheeler Island off Orissa coast, fell into the Bay of Bengal. The then defence minister Pranab Mukherjee looked at it positively. "Partial success," he called it.