The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has emerged as a source of national pride in the recent past. Yesterday, the ISRO successfully launched Chandrayaan-2, India’s second moon mission. Once the mission is successfully completed, India will become only the fourth country after the US, Russia and China to make a soft landing on the surface of the moon. This is a big achievement in itself. The space agency has not only managed to launch some historic missions frequently but has also managed to carry out its missions at incredibly low costs. Now, as per a latest report, it has come to light that while the Chandrayaan-2 was built at a cost of Rs. 978 crore, Avengers: Endgame was made at a far higher budget of Rs. 2,443 crore.
While Rs. 603 crores were spent on the mission, Rs. 375 crores were spent on the launch. It is not just about Avengers: Endgame, in fact, each one of the four Avengers movies was made at a higher cost than Chandrayaan-2. The cost of Chandrayaan-2 translates into $142 million. The Avengers was made on a budget of $220 million, Avengers: Infinity War cost $316 million, and Avengers: Age of Ultron was made on a budget of $365 million. This gives a broad idea into how cost-efficient ISRO has been with this historic mission.
However, this is not the first time that ISRO has managed to surprise with its cost-efficient technology. In 2014, ISRO had scripted history even as India became the first country to successfully reach Mars in its first attempt. The ISRO had come in the limelight for successfully completing the Mangalyaan Mission. At that time also, the cost-efficiency of the mission had made headlines. Built at a cost of $74 million, the mission was cheaper than the production cost of Hollywood Sci-fi movie ‘Gravity’.
It must be noted that the ISRO has been managing the tremendous success that it has been enjoying at an annual budget of approximately $1.2 billion (as it stood in 2018). NASA had a much higher budget of approximately $21 billion in 2018. ISRO’s budget is therefore not even 1/17 of NASA’s budget. Notwithstanding, its low budget, ISRO is contributing greatly to India’s growth story and has helped India emerge as a space power to reckon with. India’s space agency deserves to be applauded for its extensive efforts and dedication towards India’s space mission.