Days after The New York Times published an offensive cartoon mocking India's successful Mars mission, the leading US daily on Monday apologised following readers' complaints. The cartoon showed a farmer with a cow knocking at the door of a room marked 'Elite Space Club' where two men sit reading a newspaper on India's feat.
On September 24, India made history by successfully placing its spacecraft in orbit around Mars, becoming the first country in the world to succeed in such an inter-planetary mission in the maiden attempt itself. At just $74 million, the mission less than the estimated $100 million budget of the blockbuster "Gravity".
Only the US, Russia and Europe have previously sent missions to Mars.Andrew Rosenthal, editorial page editor of the NYT, wrote in a Facebook post that a “large number of readers” had complained about the cartoon. “The intent of the cartoonist was to highlight how space exploration is no longer the exclusive domain of rich, Western countries,” Rosenthal said.