Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
From the Cold War Space Race to India’s Nuclear Power Secrets, this episode of the Manastu Space Podcast is a mind-bending journey through space secrets, nuclear science, political espionage and unspoken truths.
🎙️Hosted by Raj Shrivastava, featuring the legendary Srinivas Laxman, veteran space journalist and son of R.K. Laxman, this episode reveals how India rose from humble beginnings to a global space and nuclear power.
💥What You’ll Discover:
🌙 Moon Landing: Fake or Real? The evidence & conspiracy decoded
👨🚀 Rakesh Sharma vs Ravish Malhotra: India’s first astronaut
🇮🇳 Saare Jahan Se Accha and Mission Majnu: Netflix Specials
🛰️ ISRO to Axiom-4: India’s leap into global space collaboration
⚛️ Inside BARC & Operation Shakti: What really happened in Pokhran
💣 Indira Gandhi’s secret plan to bomb Pakistan’s nuclear site
👩🚀 Kalpana Chawla & Sunita Williams: Real-life stories NASA won’t tell you
🧬 APJ Abdul Kalam, R. Chidambaram & The Common Man on Mars
✍️ R.K. Laxman’s last cartoon — and its beautiful connection to ISRO
Time Stamps:
00:00 – Moon Landing: Fake or Real?
2:28 – Meeting and knowing Rakesh Sharma
3:21 – First Indian Man to go to Space
4:02 – Ravish Malhotra vs Rakesh Sharma
4:40 – Saare Jahan Se Accha - Netflix Series
5:20 – Shubhanshu Shukla x Axiom-4 Mission
6:20 – Titan X Rakesh Sharma
7:35 – Meeting Sunita Williams and speaking to Kalpana Chawla
8:11 – Kalpana Chawla’s first mission controversy with NASA
9:20 – Kalpana broke the glass barrier in real sense
10:45 – Sunita Williams rescue mission back to earth
11:11 – Space X Dragon Crew brought them back from Boeing Starliner
11:35 – Why is NASA’s budget being cut?
12:00 – Chinese Space Station
12:40 – Bharatiya Antariksha Station and Moon Mission by ISRO
13:30 – Is NASA’s Moon Landing, giant leap or giant lie?
14:45 – Is this the start of third world war and space warfare?
15:49 – (Nuclear – Gas- Electrical) Propulsion
17:10 – NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar)
18:35 – Legacy from INCOSPAR to ISRO
20:10 – ISRO during Operation Sindoor and Axiom-4 Launch
21:00 – Apollo 13: The Most Successful Failure
22:20 – Richard Phillips Feynman: The Man behind the Manhattan Project’s Atomic Bomb
23:00 – SUPARCO and Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
23:35 – Abdul Qadeer Khan: Father of Pakistan's atomic weapons program
24:20 – Indira Gandhi’s plan to bomb Pakistan Nuclear Facility, in Kahuta
25:15 – Munir Khan vs Raja Ramanna: Battle of the atomic minds
26:07 – A Hindu man saved Pakistan’s nuclear weapon program
26:54 – Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran
27:30 – When Israeli Air Force Jets bombed Iraqi reactors
28:15 – When Mrs. Indira Gandhi was presented with the Nuclear Bomb in Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)
30:00 - Smiling Buddha (1974) and Operation Shakti (1998) Nuclear Tests
31:30 – Dr. R Chidambaram; key architect of India's nuclear weapons program
32:18 – Fine tuning the nuclear bomb in a wedding ceremony
34:30 – Mahalaxmi Ladies Club of Anand Bhavan
35:45 – What changes for a nation after becoming a Nuclear Power?
36:55 – Pakistan testing nuclear weapons and Kirana Hills Attack by Indian Armed Forces
37:55 – Nuclear issue is the main issue
38:25 – When a girl from Chennai received a letter from Robert Oppenheimer
39:08 – The Atomic Rendezvous
39:50 – Sharing an 8-hour flight to London with my dad
40:30 – Mangalyaan Mission Hero who battled cancer with humbleness and spiritual dedication
41:55 – ‘Common man on Mars’ by Sir R.K Laxman
43:25 – Dad's last cartoon and its space connection
45:30 – Sending the cartoon print to ISRO Campus
45:48 – The Last Common Man
46:40 – Amazing stories of space, science and India’s Nuclear legacy
47:10 – The Celestial Rendezvous
48:00 – Remembering APJ Abdul Kalam
48:30 – Space for all Mankind
🌍 Follow Manastu Space
🔹 Website: manastuspace.com
🔹 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/manastu-space
🔹 Twitter/X: https://x.com/ManastuSpace
🔹 Instagram: instagram.com/manastuspace
📲Follow Srinivas Laxman
🔗LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/srinivas-laxman-75a6432a/?originalSubdomain=in
🔗Book Buy Link: amzn.in/d/bfNGIOa
🎙️Follow the Host - Raj Shrivastava
🔗LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/raj-shrivastava-7656331a0
🔗Instagram: instagram.com/thenamezraj
🔗YouTube: youtube.com/@ThenamezRAJ/podcasts
🚀 The Manastu Space Podcast is India’s first in-house podcast by a space organization, bringing you deep-dive conversations with space-tech leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and thinkers shaping the future of space and deep tech.
🛰 Be a part of Manastu's community, where propulsioning the greener way, we make space-talks cool and indeed build the knowledge access to 'space for all mankind!
🔔Do like, share, and subscribe - leave your feedback in the comments.
For Enquiries: raj.shrivastava@manastuspace.com
From the Cold War Space Race to India’s Nuclear Power Secrets, this episode of the Manastu Space Podcast is a mind-bending journey through space secrets, nuclear science, political espionage and unspoken truths.
🎙️Hosted by Raj Shrivastava, featuring the legendary Srinivas Laxman, veteran space journalist and son of R.K. Laxman, this episode reveals how India rose from humble beginnings to a global space and nuclear power.
💥What You’ll Discover:
🌙 Moon Landing: Fake or Real? The evidence & conspiracy decoded
👨🚀 Rakesh Sharma vs Ravish Malhotra: India’s first astronaut
🇮🇳 Saare Jahan Se Accha and Mission Majnu: Netflix Specials
🛰️ ISRO to Axiom-4: India’s leap into global space collaboration
⚛️ Inside BARC & Operation Shakti: What really happened in Pokhran
💣 Indira Gandhi’s secret plan to bomb Pakistan’s nuclear site
👩🚀 Kalpana Chawla & Sunita Williams: Real-life stories NASA won’t tell you
🧬 APJ Abdul Kalam, R. Chidambaram & The Common Man on Mars
✍️ R.K. Laxman’s last cartoon — and its beautiful connection to ISRO
Time Stamps:
00:00 – Moon Landing: Fake or Real?
2:28 – Meeting and knowing Rakesh Sharma
3:21 – First Indian Man to go to Space
4:02 – Ravish Malhotra vs Rakesh Sharma
4:40 – Saare Jahan Se Accha - Netflix Series
5:20 – Shubhanshu Shukla x Axiom-4 Mission
6:20 – Titan X Rakesh Sharma
7:35 – Meeting Sunita Williams and speaking to Kalpana Chawla
8:11 – Kalpana Chawla’s first mission controversy with NASA
9:20 – Kalpana broke the glass barrier in real sense
10:45 – Sunita Williams rescue mission back to earth
11:11 – Space X Dragon Crew brought them back from Boeing Starliner
11:35 – Why is NASA’s budget being cut?
12:00 – Chinese Space Station
12:40 – Bharatiya Antariksha Station and Moon Mission by ISRO
13:30 – Is NASA’s Moon Landing, giant leap or giant lie?
14:45 – Is this the start of third world war and space warfare?
15:49 – (Nuclear – Gas- Electrical) Propulsion
17:10 – NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar)
18:35 – Legacy from INCOSPAR to ISRO
20:10 – ISRO during Operation Sindoor and Axiom-4 Launch
21:00 – Apollo 13: The Most Successful Failure
22:20 – Richard Phillips Feynman: The Man behind the Manhattan Project’s Atomic Bomb
23:00 – SUPARCO and Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
23:35 – Abdul Qadeer Khan: Father of Pakistan's atomic weapons program
24:20 – Indira Gandhi’s plan to bomb Pakistan Nuclear Facility, in Kahuta
25:15 – Munir Khan vs Raja Ramanna: Battle of the atomic minds
26:07 – A Hindu man saved Pakistan’s nuclear weapon program
26:54 – Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran
27:30 – When Israeli Air Force Jets bombed Iraqi reactors
28:15 – When Mrs. Indira Gandhi was presented with the Nuclear Bomb in Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)
30:00 - Smiling Buddha (1974) and Operation Shakti (1998) Nuclear Tests
31:30 – Dr. R Chidambaram; key architect of India's nuclear weapons program
32:18 – Fine tuning the nuclear bomb in a wedding ceremony
34:30 – Mahalaxmi Ladies Club of Anand Bhavan
35:45 – What changes for a nation after becoming a Nuclear Power?
36:55 – Pakistan testing nuclear weapons and Kirana Hills Attack by Indian Armed Forces
37:55 – Nuclear issue is the main issue
38:25 – When a girl from Chennai received a letter from Robert Oppenheimer
39:08 – The Atomic Rendezvous
39:50 – Sharing an 8-hour flight to London with my dad
40:30 – Mangalyaan Mission Hero who battled cancer with humbleness and spiritual dedication
41:55 – ‘Common man on Mars’ by Sir R.K Laxman
43:25 – Dad's last cartoon and its space connection
45:30 – Sending the cartoon print to ISRO Campus
45:48 – The Last Common Man
46:40 – Amazing stories of space, science and India’s Nuclear legacy
47:10 – The Celestial Rendezvous
48:00 – Remembering APJ Abdul Kalam
48:30 – Space for all Mankind
🌍 Follow Manastu Space
🔹 Website: manastuspace.com
🔹 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/manastu-space
🔹 Twitter/X: https://x.com/ManastuSpace
🔹 Instagram: instagram.com/manastuspace
📲Follow Srinivas Laxman
🔗LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/srinivas-laxman-75a6432a/?originalSubdomain=in
🔗Book Buy Link: amzn.in/d/bfNGIOa
🎙️Follow the Host - Raj Shrivastava
🔗LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/raj-shrivastava-7656331a0
🔗Instagram: instagram.com/thenamezraj
🔗YouTube: youtube.com/@ThenamezRAJ/podcasts
🚀 The Manastu Space Podcast is India’s first in-house podcast by a space organization, bringing you deep-dive conversations with space-tech leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and thinkers shaping the future of space and deep tech.
🛰 Be a part of Manastu's community, where propulsioning the greener way, we make space-talks cool and indeed build the knowledge access to 'space for all mankind!
🔔Do like, share, and subscribe - leave your feedback in the comments.
For Enquiries: raj.shrivastava@manastuspace.com
