In recent years the nation of India has embraced spaceflight as a means of establishing itself as a major geopolitical player. The Soviet Union and United States, of course, pioneered the use of space exploration to exercise soft power in the 1960s during the Cold War. More recently China has used its various space missions, both human and scientific, to bolster its international prestige.

And now India is seeking to do the same. Spaceflight not only helps out on the international stage, but domestically as well. After the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft made a soft landing on the Moon in August, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was able to bask in the reflected glory of the nation’s space agency, ISRO. Modi also previously set into motion the Gaganyaan program to launch the country’s first astronauts from its own soil.