India’s first space mission to the moon, which resulted in a satellite being placed in orbit around it, has experienced a technical problem, India’s space research officials have announced. Perhaps they will sort it out with the help of the £1 billion in foreign aid money that British taxpayers give to that nation.

A sensor of the unmanned Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has “malfunctioned” and steps have been taken to ensure it is able to continue its work, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced.

Chandrayaan-1 was launched last October and has been orbiting the moon since then, making detailed maps of its surface. ISRO scientists said that the “vital star sensor” of the spacecraft had “malfunctioned.”

“The mission is safe, but its lifespan may be affected,” ISRO spokesman S Satish told the media. The two year space programme is compiling a 3-D atlas of the lunar surface and mapping the distribution of elements and minerals. The mission cost 3.8 billion rupees (£45m).

In January 2008, Gordon Brown announced a new aid package to India totalling £825 million. According to Denis MacShane, former Europe Minister, British aid to India totals £1 billion — bizarre when it is considered that India has more billionaires and millionaires than Britain and an economy 50 percent larger.

The Indian space programme has been running since 1980 and a further moon mission is planned for 2011. Shortly after that, according to ISRO, India will put its first men into space.

The Department for International Development (DFID), which coordinates the funnelling of British tax money to the Third World via the guise of ‘foreign aid’, said the £825 million announced by Mr Brown will be spent in India on “education, health, rural livelihoods, economic services, governance reform, urban reform, climate change,” and “multilateral effectiveness” — whatever that may be.

According to DFID information, the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa contain “half of all India’s poor. Health problems and lack of education mean that survival from one day to the next is the primary concern. Fragile law and order and outbursts of violence compound the problem.”

DFID goes on to say that India also has widespread discrimination. “Gender discrimination is perhaps the most acute. Preference for sons, female feticide, and neglect and infanticide of girls are so widespread in parts of the country that in some areas there are only 850 girls for every 1000 boys. Caste discrimination continues to be widespread. India’s 200 million Dalits (formerly known as Untouchables) are still stigmatised and are disproportionately represented among the poorest,” says the DFID, adding that 44 percent of the world’s unvaccinated children live in India.

Under such circumstances, any normal government would spend its resources on helping its own people, rather than taking photographs of the moon. But then again why should they when they can rely on the Tory and Labour parties to provide them with foreign aid, stolen from British people whose public services face drastic cuts because of the recession.