NEW DELHI: India does not see space only as a field of research but as the future of tomorrow’s economy, security, energy and humanity, and cannot afford to stay behind in the journey, defence minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday.“We’re steadily advancing beyond the earth’s surface into new frontiers of space. We’ve already marked our presence from the moon to Mars, and today, the nation stands fully prepared for missions like Gaganyaan,” Singh said.The minister felicitated IAF Group Captains Shubhanshu Shukla, P B Nair, Ajit Krishnan and Angad Pratap, who are part of Isro‘s maiden space flight mission Gaganyaan, and who he described as “gems of the country and pioneers of national aspirations”. The event was attended by Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan and IAF chief Air Chief Marshal A P Singh, among others.“India proudly stands tall among the world’s leading space powers. Its space programme is not confined to laboratories and launch vehicles. It’s a reflection of our national aspirations and global vision. From Chandrayaan to Mangalyaan, we have demonstrated that even with limited resources, an unlimited willpower can transform the most challenging goals into remarkable accomplishments,” Singh said.The technologies derived from space, be it communication satellites, weather monitoring or disaster management, are delivering services to every village and every field across India,” Singh said.In the coming times, space mining, deep space exploration, and planetary resources will redefine the course of human civilization, he added.