I think people here appreciate the Indian achievement because it reflects on a number of Hacker News axioms:
1. It's better to hack something than design for perfection. India had a number of launch failures prior to this success, but kept at it at low cost. They literally launched early and got feedback :-)
2. The cost of creating technology start-ups is getting lower all the time. India did this on the cheap and was able to piggy back on years of prior work. It would be interested to see a comparison of the cost of getting into lunar orbit between 1945 and today.
3. It doesn't matter who you are, it's what you do that counts.
4. There are some places in the world that are best suited for particular technology start-ups: Boston and SV for software, anywhere along the Equator for a minimal delta-v.
<i> India had a number of launch failures prior to this success, </i>
If you are referring to a lunar satellite kind of mission, this is not true.
"Chandrayan- I" is their very first shot at it.
Even the launch vehicle (PSLV) has a very good track record.
[http://www.isro.org/pslv-c11/brochure/Page10.htm]
"During 1993-2008 period, PSLV had twelve consecutively successful launches carrying satellites to Sun Synchronous, Low Earth and Geosynchronous Transfer Orbits."
1. It's better to hack something than design for perfection. India had a number of launch failures prior to this success, but kept at it at low cost. They literally launched early and got feedback :-)
2. The cost of creating technology start-ups is getting lower all the time. India did this on the cheap and was able to piggy back on years of prior work. It would be interested to see a comparison of the cost of getting into lunar orbit between 1945 and today.
3. It doesn't matter who you are, it's what you do that counts.
4. There are some places in the world that are best suited for particular technology start-ups: Boston and SV for software, anywhere along the Equator for a minimal delta-v.