The eagerly awaited touchdown of Isro’s ambitious Chandrayaan-3 Moon Mission was met with a deluge of congratulations on social media. Many people noted how far Isro has come in terms of space exploration as they expressed their joy over the historic voyage.
A portion of the internet was eager to criticize an old cartoon that the New York Times had published back in 2014, along with the joyous responses.
For the uninitiated, a tremendous commotion resulted from Heng Kim Song’s cartoon, which featured a farmer and a cow knocking on the door of the Elite Space Club while two guys inside were reading a newspaper celebrating India’s accomplishment. Along with the article, the cartoon was headlined India’s Budget Mission to Mars.
Later, the New York Times apologized for the cartoon. People were quick to point out that the Isro Chandrayaan-3 mission’s success was the perfect response to the insulting cartoon.
A robotic probe from India’s Mangalyaan Mars Mission was successfully launched into orbit around Mars last month. The mission, which cost 4.5 billion rupees ($74 million) in total, is regarded as one of the most economical interplanetary space missions ever carried out. Given that only the United States, Russia, and Europe had previously dispatched missions to Mars, and India was able to succeed on its first attempt, this accomplishment is all the more impressive.
The artist wanted to emphasize how space exploration is no longer just a privilege of wealthy, Western nations, according to Andrew Rosenthal, editorial page editor of the New York Times. Rosenthal underlined that the cartoon was not intended to be offensive to either the Indian people or their government.
