Although America and Russia, the traditional space-race adversaries, have launched more spacecraft than any other countries, a slew of smaller players are nipping at their heels.

It has got around the state monopoly on advertising by deploying its trademark blimps, and pre-empted objections to that by using them to advocate a worthy cause: safe driving.

But India is not the only Asian country in the new space race - Iran recently announced that it will attempt a manned space flight by 2021.