Did radical Islam, Kashmir obsession stop Pakistan's space programme that was launched before India? Abdus Salam left because...

Though Pakistan launched its space programme eight years before India when it had set up the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) in 1961, soon it was lost in oblivion. After becoming the fourth Asian country to launch its space agency, Islamabad lost its momentum and now it is nowhere. On the other hand, the Indian Space Research Organisation, has walked a long way from carrying rocket cones on bicycles and ferrying satellites on bullock carts to successfully sending its orbiter to Mars and a satellite to study the Sun. 

Pakistan's space agency SUPARCO before ISRO!

As the US-USSR space race began, Washington had its sounding rocket to the SUPARCO, which helped Pakistan understand the functioning of the upper atmosphere and it could know how air currents move at the top of the atmosphere. Prof. Abdus Salam, who was awarded the Nobel Prize later, was the main guiding force behind space research in Pakistan. Working as an adviser to then-President Ayub Khan, Professor Salam set up the SUPARCO. The SUPRARCO was established on September 16, 1961, and it launched its first satellite Rahbar-1 in June 1962. All this happened much before the ISRO was born. 

Nobel laureate Abdus Samad quits Pakistan

The launch of Rahbar-1 made India uncomfortable because the development of space and military technologies go side by side. New Delhi was upset that Islamabad could use the same technology in the development of missiles and other weapons. However, soon succumbing to the rise of radical Islam, Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto declared Ahmadis as non-Muslim, bringing massive disrespect and embarrassment to Professor Salam, who left Pakistan. With his departure, Islamabad got a huge setback. 

SUPARCO becomes redundant

Secondly, being obsessed with Kashmir and extremely anti-India, Pakistan soon decided to focus on defense research and ignored space technology. The SUPARCO also lost its path because Pakistani generals took a leadership role in the organisation and the scientists were relegated to the sidelines. The SUPARCO has no achievement to boast of, not a single successful launch as it is in shambles. 

Pakistan yet to develop Indigenous satellite

Pakistan could not develop indigenous satellite launching and producing technology. If everything goes well, it will have the first launching facilities of its own in 2040, that too with the help of China. The crux of the matter could be understood by the famous announcement made by the then Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He said, "We (Pakistan) will eat grass, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own (atom bomb)… We have no other choice!"

Pakistan proved his points. Pakistan has nuclear bombs, its economy is in tatters with people fighting for atta and the IMF refusing to bail it out. Forget about space research and the Mars mission, something ISRO has already achieved.