moon i'm joined by the raf gopalaswami director of the south asia center at the atlantic council and an expert on the indian space program thank you so much for joining us this is very exciting and of course it's a major step forward for india's space program why were they so determined to get to the moon. well i don't i think it's not they were determined to get to the moon i think it's essentially space exploration evolved as an integral part of the indian space program and i was a part of that and or of their sort of government to do something new every year and this has been a systematic graduated increase advancement of the exploration program and that's why they're keen on getting to the mall in terms of sending to scientific experiments. so gradual expansion how does india space program measure up right now to the more well established programs of the u.s. or russia. well you know 1st a full a i don't like this comparison with the u.s. or russia for for the start because and as i said the graduated expansion because india space program started this merely as an application or