Achievements
In 1961, international achievements first recorded in 1961 when Pakistan became third Asian country and tenth in the world when the Rehbar-I — a solid fuel expandable rocket— was launched from Sonmani Spaceport. The Rehbar-I was launched and developed under the leadership of dr. W. J. M. Turowicz, a renowned Polish-Pakistani scientist and then-project-director of this program. Since then, the program began taking flights which continued until 1970s.
However, a major-breakthrough was internationally recorded in 1979, when the Nobel Prize Committee announced to award the prestigious Nobel Prize in Physics to Abdus Salam for formulating the Electroweak Theory — a theory that provides the basis of unification of weak nuclear force and the electromagnetic force. In 1990, Suparco launched her first and locally designed communication satellite, Badr-I, from Xichang Satellite Launch Center of the Peoples Republic of China. With launch of this satellite, Pakistan became first Muslim majority country to have been succeeded to developed artificial robotic satellite, and was the second South Asian state to have launched its satellite, second to India.
One of the widely reported achievement was internationally recorded in 1998, when country joined the elite Nuclear club. In response of India's nuclear tests on May 11 and May 13 of 1998, under codename Operation Shakti, in long-constructed Indian Army Pokhran Test Range (PTR). Pakistan under the leadership of Prime minister Navaz Scharief, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), conducted five simultaneous tests at the Chagai Hills under codename Chagai-I on May 28, 1998. To even the score with India, the PAEC carried another and test at the Kharan Desert, under Chaga-II, making it has tested a total of six devices in under one week. With the testing of these atomic devices, Pakistan became 7th nuclear power country in the world, and the only Muslim-majority country to have mastered the technology. In August 13 of 2011, the Suparco launched its first and indigenously developed geosynchronous satellite, Paksat-IR from Xichang Satellite Launch Centre of the People's Republic of China.
Read more about this topic: Science And Technology In Pakistan
Famous quotes containing the word achievements:
“Like all writers, he measured the achievements of others by what they had accomplished, asking of them that they measure him by what he envisaged or planned.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)
“Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements, and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end result of a clean forward thrust, and our present difficulties as signs of decline and decay.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)