At the advent of our NewSpace Age or commercialization of Space, the final frontier has become the new frontier for peace and diplomacy on Earth.
“I congratulate India and ISRO on its historic attempt to make a successful soft landing of the Vikram Lander at the South Pole of the Moon,” said Namira Salim, who is renowned as the First Pakistani to go to space aboard Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, the First Space-line of the world. “The Chandaryaan 2 lunar mission is indeed a giant leap for South Asia which not only makes the region but the entire global space industry proud.” Vikram Lander exhibited normal performance up to an altitude of 2.1 kilometers from the moon until ISRO lost signals.
“Regional developments in the Space sector in South Asia are remarkable and no matter which nation leads—in space, all political boundaries dissolve and in space—what unites us, overrides, what divides us on Earth,” said Namira Salim.
What was once the club of a select few elite space nations, is now open to all nations at the dawn of our NewSpace age. India is the first country to attempt a historic landing on the South Pole of the Moon and would have been the fourth nation to touch down on the lunar surface after space agencies of the USSR, the USA and China, and the third country to have operated a rover on the Moon.
Namira is a thought leader in making Space the New Frontier for Peace on Earth via her non-profit, Space Trust and advocates world leaders and governments to utilize space as a sustainable tool for peace on Earth toward Space 2030, in support of the UN Sustainable Development Agenda of 2030. This role has carved her into a thought leader for a novel form of Space Diplomacy on Earth.
“As Spacefaring and new space nations come to play an equally integral part in contributing to and bringing space and peaceful uses of space technologies on Earth, world leaders must join hands to understand that Space can actually help craft a novel form of Diplomacy on Earth and for which, they don’t need to be rocket scientists. Accordingly, the best place to begin is in our very own sub-region to foster peace,” said Namira Salim.
With this year marking the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, China’s Change 4 achieved the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, on 3 January 2019. Moreover, through NASA’s newly announced Artemis program, it will create a base on the moon by 2024 with a coalition of nations, to not only return the next man but also, to land the first woman on the moon. India was the first nation in the world to successfully launch a mission to Mars, the Mangalyaan or Mars Orbiter Mission, in a maiden attempt, a Space probe orbiting Mars since 24 September 2014.
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