The Congress on Saturday said it was Nehru's vision of making India self-reliant in the space domain, and his decision to not align with the great powers despite criticism, which has now yielded such rich dividends in space exploration.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said there has been a lot of commentary in Pakistan's media on the outstanding achievements of ISRO with a lament that the agency made such big strides even though Pakistan's space agency SUPARCO was set up in late 1961, a few months before India's INCOSPAR in February 1962.