 "<b>Isro@47</b>: The maverick journey of Indian space agency")
As the nation celebrates its 70th Independence Day today, August 15 is also historically remarkable for the national space agency — The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). It was on this day in 1969 that the agency organisation was constituted — 47 years ago.
Throughout its journey, it has upheld its mission of bringing space to the service of the common man, to the service of the nation.
In this process, Isro has become one of the six largest space agencies in the world; it has improvised and developed technology, launched several indigenously-created vehicles into space.
With the establishment of the country's space agency and further with the Government of India forming the Space Commission for policy formulation and the Department of Space, research and execution of space related enterprises got a boost that it never had before.
History of space activities in India
During the early 1960's, space research activities commenced in India. At that time, applications using satellites were in experimental stages even in the United States (US). With the live transmission of Tokyo Olympic Games across the Pacific by the US satellite ‘Syncom-3’ demonstrating the power of communication satellites, Dr Vikram Sarabhai, the founding father of Indian space programme, quickly recognized the benefits of space technologies for India.
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The Indian history of space activities reached its first milestone in 1962, when country's first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru orchestrated the Indian space mission with Sarabhai to establish the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR). It was set up at Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala for upper atmospheric research.
INCOSPAR
Following the establishment of the INCOSPAR, the first rocket launch from India took place in November 21, 1963. In 1969, Isro superseded the erstwhile INCOSPAR and embarked on its mission to provide the nation space-based services and to develop the technologies to achieve the same independently.
Business Standard, lists out top 10 key achievements made by Isro since its foundation.
1. First Indian satellite launch: On April 19, 1975, the first Indian satellite, Aryabhata, named after the famous Indian astronomer, was launched. It was completely designed and fabricated in India and launched by a Soviet Kosmos-3M rocket from Kapustin Yar, put forward India with the basis of learning satellite technology and designing.
2. Project SITE: From 1975 to 1976, Isro along with US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) developed means of using space communications system for TV broadcasting. This resulted in the creation of the project Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE). It was a one-year programme covering villages and districts of India with an aim to experiment usage of satellite broadcasting to educate the masses.
3. Project STEP: From 1976 to 1977, Satellite Telecommunication Experiments Project (STEP) was launched as a sequel of SITE. It used satellite technology for enhancing domestic communication.
4. First remote sensing satellite: On June 07,1979, Bhaskara-I, the first Experimental Remote Sensing Satellite was built in India. The onboard TV camera imageries were used in the field of Hydrology and Forestry. Rich scientific data sent by SAMIR was used for oceanographic studies.
5. First indigenously created satellite: On July 18, 1980, Rohini, the first indigenously created satellite vehicle was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. SLV-3 placed the Rohini satellite, RS-1, in orbit, thereby making India the sixth member of an exclusive club of space-faring countries.
6. First manned space mission: On April 2, 1984, the first Indo-Soviet manned space mission was launched. Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian citizen to go into space. He flew aboard in the Soviet rocket Soyuz T-11, as part of a three member Soviet-Indian crew.
7. Operational remote sensing: On March 17, 1988, IRS-1A, the first of the series of indigenous state-of-art remote sensing satellites, was successfully launched into a polar sun-synchronous orbit from the Soviet Cosmodrome at Baikonur.
8. First lunar mission: On October 22, 2008, Chandrayaan-1, the nation's first lunar mission launched by Isro. The spacecraft took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh and it was operated till August 2009. In 2003, this moon mission was announced by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his Independence Day speech. One of the most exceptional feat of this lunar mission was the revelation of water on Moon.
9. First interplanetary mission: On November 5, 2013, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) also known as Mangalyaan, India’s first interplanetary mission was launched. India scripted space history, when it successfully placed its low-cost Mars spacecraft in orbit around the Red Planet on its very first attempt, breaking into an elite club of three nations.
The space probe entered the Mars orbit on September 24, almost a year after its launch, and made its home around the red planet. European Space Agency (ESA) of European consortium, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US and Roscosmos of Russia are the only three other agencies which had so far sent their missions to Mars.
Only 21 of the total of 51 missions sent to Mars by various countries have been successful before Mangalyaan. The Mars mission of the Isro is aimed at establishing the country’s capability to reach the red planet and focus on looking for the presence of methane, an indicator of life in Mars.
10. Launch 20 satellites: On June 22, 2016, Isro launched a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket to send 20 satellites on a single mission from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. It was the first attempt by the Indian scientists to send 20 satellites in one go.
Source: Isro