Dr Vikram Sarabhai, the Father of the Indian space programme, started working towards rocketry in 1961. He recruited talented scientists like Dr A P J Kalam, Prof U R Rao and many others. He succeeded in getting international cooperation from advanced nations like the USA, the erstwhile Soviet Union and France for setting up basic facilities in the country.
In August 1961, the Government of India formed the Indian National Committee on Space Research (INCOSPAR) under DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) with Dr Sarabhai as Chairman, which eventually transformed into the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 1969.
Now the space domain is expanding exponentially across the globe. If India has to catch up, it will have to make its space industry truly global. In view of this, the Government of India has announced the opening of opportunities for the private sector in space domain with the mentoring and infrastructural support from the Department of Space. Even today, a majority of the sub-systems and components are produced and supplied by Indian industry for launch vehicle and satellites. But they need to supply end-to-end capabilities to be independent. Further, the capital-intensive infrastructure doesn’t give rate of return for the industry to invest. In view of this, the Department of Space is offering the facilities to the industry to carry out activities under the supervision of DOS and ISRO centres.
Early Days
Dr Sarabhai established the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) at Thiruvananthapuram in 1963. On November 21, 1963, the first Nike-Apache rocket was successfully launched from TERLS, which was regarded as the beginning of the India’s journey into Space.
He also established the basic infrastructure like Space Science and Technology Centre (SSTC) in Thiruvananthapuram and the Experimental Satellite Communication Earth Station (ESCES) in Ahmedabad, for developing indigenous satellite launch capability.
Following the untimely demise of Dr Homi Jehangir Bhabha on January 24, 1966, Dr Sarabhai became the Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission. He left all his private business and started propounding the importance of nuclear research for societal benefits. He laid the foundation of the Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu and the Uranium Corporation in Jharkhand. He was nominated as Scientific Chairman for the Committee on Atomic Research and Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes in the United Nations.
He believed in mass communication and brought forth the concept of Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) using the services of NASA’s ATS-6 communication satellite for one year. This programme gained much popularity leading to a revolution in the field of Direct to Home TV.
Meanwhile, Dr Sarabhai and team operationalized the Sriharikota Range-SHAR on October 9, 1971 with the flight of Rohini-125 rocket. Today known as the Satish Dhawan Space Centre-SHAR, it is a world-famous spaceport.
As the break of dawn on December 30, 1971, the nation received a rude shock. Dr Vikram Sarabhai passed away at the age of only 52 years at Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram.
Creating Space Infrastructure
After the unexpected demise of Dr Sarabhai, Professor MGK Menon became the chairman of ISRO for a brief period. Thereafter, the baton was passed on to another stalwart of India’s space research, Professor Satish Dhawan. Under his leadership, the Indian Space Program began to take shape, as was envisioned by Dr Sarabhai.
SSTC (Space Science and Technology Centre) at Thiruvananthapuram was renamed as Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in 1972 and is the lead centre of ISRO for launch vehicle design and development. It provides the technology base for the development programmes of indigenous satellite launch vehicles.
The same year, Space Applications Centre (SAC) was formed at Ahmedabad. The Centre designs and realises all the payloads of ISRO satellites and their applications for national development and societal benefits.
U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), Bengaluru, formerly known as ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) was also established in 1972. Today, it is the lead centre for building satellites and developing associated satellite technologies.
The Department of Space (DOS) and the Space Commission were also set up in 1972.The main function of Space Commission is to frame and approve policies which are implemented through DOS. ISRO was formalised as the executive agency of the DOS.
With the SITE experiment, television in India entered the life of rural population of 2,400 villages spanning six states. SITE benefited more than two lakh people and was a truly impressive feat for a fledgling space programme. This grand experiment is also credited for training over 50,000 science teachers of primary schools for one full year. SITE was considered a one-of-its-kind and the largest sociological experiment in the world.
Step Towards Building Own Satellites
The resounding success of SITE was followed by a series of Satellite communication experiments.
Kheda Communications Project (KCP) started in 1975 and worked as a field laboratory for need-based and locale-specific programme transmission in the Kheda district of Gujarat.
KCP received UNESCO-International Programme for the Development of Communication award for rural communication efficiency in 1984.
Satellite Telecommunication Experiments Project STEP initiated in 1977 was aimed to test possible use of a geosynchronous satellite for domestic telecommunication. It provided more clarity into technical capability enhancement, design experience and capacity building.
STEP also provided the scope for gaining insight into installation, operation and maintenance of various ground segment facilities and build up requisite for indigenous competence for the proposed operational domestic satellite system, the Indian National Satellite System, popularly known as INSAT.
The SITE and STEP experiments were the stepping stones towards the conceptualisation of Indian National Satellite System (INSAT). Objectives of the program were to provide instructional TV to at least 80% of population and enable Indian subcontinent with modern long-distance telecommunications.
In 1981, an experimental communication satellite APPLE was built indigenously and launched from European Space agency’s Ariane rocket. This experience gave confidence to the team at ISRO to develop large communication satellites for domestic use. The INSAT system was then conceived.
INSAT & Communication Revolution
It was a series of multipurpose Geo-stationary satellites to satisfy the telecommunications, broadcasting, meteorology, and search and rescue needs of India. Commissioned in 1983, INSAT was the largest domestic communication system in the Asia Pacific Region.
First four of INSAT series satellites were built by Ford Aerospace of USA. Subsequently, ISRO developed the capability of building communication satellites ingeniously
At the same time ISRO started building up the launch capability for self-reliance in launching the satellites. Under the leadership of Dr A P J Kalam, launch vehicle project like SLV-3 was conceived and subsequently, ASLV demonstrated various technologies and paved way for the robust design of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
Tele-Education and Telemedicine are two flagship societal applications started by ISRO to bridge the digital divide in the society in education and health sectors.
Tele-Education provides access to quality education at all levels, to the remotest parts of the country. Telemedicine services provide medical assistance to a large number of people living in far-flung and secluded areas of the country.
Today, India has the largest domestic fleet of advanced communication satellites which also includes the latest and modern high throughput spot beam satellites like GSAT-11, GSAT-19 and GSAT-29.
Earth Observation & Remote Sensing
In a similar vein, ISRO had made progress in the development of earth observation satellites as well.
In 1970, Kerala suffered a severe problem of coconut root-wilt disease, which very badly affected the yield. As the traditional methods for spotting the disease were very tedious and time consuming, Prof P R Pisharoty successfully carried out a pathbreaking experiment for detecting this using colour-infrared aerial photography from a helicopter. Thus was born the concept of using satellites for Earth observation and the seed was sown for the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite programme.
Experimental Remote Sensing Satellites Rohini-2 and Bhaskara-2, launched in 1981, were the early steps taken towards a full-fledged Earth observation program.
The IRS program was also vigorously pursued since inception. The establishment system started with the launch of IRS-1A in 1988. This was followed by IRS and Resourcesat series for several applications covering agriculture, water resources, urban development, mineral prospecting, environment, forestry, drought and flood forecasting, among others.
Today, India is the proud custodian of the world’s largest constellation of remote sensing satellites. The system offers very wide application in agriculture like yield assessment, pest propagation, identification of water catchments, etc. Another application of Oceansat is identifying potential fishing zones for the fishermen. The series of Cartosat satellites provides high resolution images of urban areas for effective town planning and smart city building.
The year 1980 also saw the formation of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) in Bengaluru. The LPSC today is a major centre for development of liquid propulsion technology.
From Satellites to Launch Vehicles
This path led to the realisation of workhorse, ever reliable launch vehicle the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle –PSLV in 1994, when it successfully placed IRS-P2 in the orbit.
In the last 25 years, PSLV has successfully launched more than 55 Indian and about 300 foreign customer satellites from as many as 32 countries. It is today a popular choice internationally for providing economical access to space.
PSLV was also instrumental in launching landmark missions like Chandrayaan-1, the Mars Orbiter Mission, and has also created world record of launching 104 satellites in one mission.
Indian Space programme also continued to develop key infrastructure by instituting new centres and augment the existing ones. The facilities in Sriharikota Range (SHAR) were suitably multiplied to support large number of missions. This centre was later renamed in 2003 as Satish Dhawan Space Centre-SHAR.
With the operationalisation of PSLV in late nineties, the country attained self-reliance for launching earth observation satellites to LEO. However, our dependence on foreign players for launching satellites to geostationary orbit propelled ISRO to develop heavier vehicles like GSLV –Mk II and Mk III.
Starting in 2001, the first few flights of the larger GSLV rocket were equipped with Russian Cryogenic stage, which still was a dependence. As a result of focused efforts, ISRO succeeded in developing C12 Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) and the first successful flight of GSLV-Mk-II with indigenous cryogenic stage took place in January 2014 when GSLV D5 launched GSAT-14 Satellite. GSLV is now an operational vehicle, capable of launching 2-ton class of satellites into geostationary transfer orbit.
The heavy lift GSLV MKIII, capable of placing about 4-ton class satellite in GTO had its first experimental sub-orbital flight in December 2014 when it carried a 3,775 kg CARE Module to a height of 126 km. The module later safely landed over Andaman Sea and was successfully recovered.
GSLV-MkIII-D1, the first development flight of GSLV-Mk III with indigenous C25 cryogenic upper stage took place in June 2017. The vehicle launched 3,136 Kg GSAT-19 spacecraft successfully to GTO in its ever first maiden attempt.
Chandrayaan & Mangalyaan
On October 22, 2008, ISRO successfully launched the country’s first lunar mission Chandrayaan – 1 that caught the attention worldwide and we began to be counted as a major player in space exploration. India had become the fourth country to successfully send a probe to the surface of the moon.
The spectacular success of our first interplanetary mission Mangalyaan in 2013, to the Red Planet, placed the country on a pedestal, which is shared by only a few nations. For the first time, a country had succeeded in a Mars mission in its very first attempt.
IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System) is an independent regional navigation satellite system developed by ISRO similar to GPS of USA. It is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India and extending approximately 1,500 kilometers around the Indian mainland. The constellation was named NavIC. This Indian Regional Navigation system along with customised Bhuvan software caters to national navigation and geo-positional requirements, including transportation and strategic applications.
ISRO has been able to put in place a disaster monitoring and early warning system, which has helped us in bringing down causalities in the event of natural calamities in the recent past. Efficient weather forecasting, agriculture forecasting, urban planning, cartography and ocean monitoring have become part and parcel of our lifestyle. Rural connectivity and role of space in digital India movement also are significant.
ISRO successfully launched Chandrayaan-2 mission on July 22, 2019 inserted the orbiter, lander Vikram and rover Pragyan into the precise orbit. The orbiter is collecting valuable information around the moon, while the lander attempted for soft landing and missed at the last moment.
The Future
Now, ISRO embarks on few missions on international co-operation like NISAR and interplanetary missions like Aditya (to study the Sun), Chandrayaan-3, Sukrayaan (to Venus) and Mangalyaan-2. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a very ambitious target for Team ISRO to launch the Human Spaceflight Mission Gaganyaan by 2022. The ISRO team is working day and night to fulfil the target despite the progress getting affected due to the ongoing pandemic.
