India

History of Indian Space Activities

India's experience in rocketry began in ancient times when fireworks were first used in the country, a technology invented in neighbouring China, and which had an extensive two-way exchange of ideas and goods with India, connected by the Silk Road. It is believed by many that advanced rocketry began and was demonstrated in India around 1780, when British troops invaded Mysore, ruled by the rajah, Hyder Ali. Unknown to the British, an inventor had been working for the rajah to develop a new kind of rocket. Using metal tubes, instead of cardboard, he was able to make much larger rockets. They were 12 pounds, using bamboo poles for stability that were 10 feet long and could fly half a mile. (http://space.about.com/od/spaceexplorationhistory/ss/rockethistory1_6.ht...)

Since its independence in 1947, Indian scientists and political leaders have worked to develop an indigenous space program. Today, the space activities in India are centrally carried out under the Indian Space Research Organization (Hindi: भारतीय अन्तरिक्ष अनुसंधान संगठन Bhāratīya Atariṣ Anusadhāna Sagaṭhana) or ISRO, (Hindi: इसरो Isarō), India's national space agency. With its headquarters in Bangalore, the ISRO employs approximately 20,000 people, with a budget of around US$815 million at March 2006 exchange rate. Its mandate is the development of technologies related to space and their application to India's development. The current Chairman of ISRO is G. Madhavan Nair.

Some quick Space Activity Facts:
- Dr. Vikram Sarabhai was the founding father of the Indian space program, and is considered a scientific visionary by many, as well as a national hero.
- India's space program was formed primarily around the urge to develop capabilities to launch satellites, due to its geographical proximity to the equator
- India's first satellite, Aryabhata was launched in 1975 by a Soviet booster
- The first indigenous satellite launched by India was called Rohini-1 in 1980.
- India's most prominent launch site is the Satish Dhawan Space Centre located in Sri Harikota in Andra Pradesh.
- India's first astronaut Rakesh Sharma flew for 8 days on Salyut 7 space station in 1984 becoming the 138th individual to travel in space!
- India is developing a project to send an unmanned probe to the moon in 2008, as a first attempt at exploration of the solar system. The probe is named Chandrayaan-1 (Sanskrit: चंद्रयान-1, meaning: Lunar Craft or Moon Vehicle)

(Courtesy of Bee Thakore, former co-NPoC India)

Current events for space advocates to look out in India for:

From the website of the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education
for the Asia-Pacific region website, comes the following announcements
that you might be interested in -

1) Sixth 9 month Post Graduate course in Space & Atmospheric Science at
PRL, Ahmedabad from Aug. 1, 2008.
Link: http://www.cssteap.org/announcent6.html

2) Sixth 9 month Post Graduate course in Satellite Meteorology & Global
climate at Ahmedabad from Aug. 1, 2008.
Link:
http://www.cssteap.org/anoouoncement_brochure/2008/satmet_6/announcent6_...

3) Short Course on Satellite Navigation and Location based services at
SAC, Ahmedabad during June 18 to July 18, 2008.
Link:
http://www.cssteap.org/anoouoncement_brochure/2008/satnav/announcent.htm...

4) Short Course on Disaster Management for Drought at IIRS, Dehradun
during July14-8Aug. 2008.
Link:
http://www.cssteap.org/anoouoncement_brochure/2008/crop_yield/announcent...

5) Thirteenth 9 month Post Graduate course in RS & GIS at
IIRS, Dehradun from Oct. 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009.
Link:
http://www.cssteap.org/anoouoncement_brochure/2008/remote_gis/announcent...

(Courtesy of Pradeep Nair)