Reaching for the Stars: India’s journey in the Space World

-- Alby Mariam Thomas, X-D, Indian Central School

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

As India celebrates its 73rd Republic Day, it has already entered the golden era of space technology. India has a rich tradition of promoting national development using outer space. India has made its mark in sectors like satellite television, banking, e-governance, smart city development, weather forecasting, telemedicine, tele-education, and many more, with the poorest of the poor as the main beneficiaries.

India’s space quest has been pioneered by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) set up as the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) in 1962, under the leadership of Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru and Scientist Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian Space Program. The journey of ISRO as the leader of the Indian Space Program started with humble beginnings from the village of Thumba in the district of Trivandrum, Kerala with the premises of a church at the site of the Earth's magnetic equator used to set up the first rocket launch facilities and to launch the first rockets. India has so far launched a total of 342 foreign satellites, conducted 112 space missions, 82 launch missions, and two re-entry missions.

The launch of its first rocket in 1963 from Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS), the first indigenous rocket RH-75 in 1967, and the first Indian-made satellite Aryabhata in 1975, all marked the beginning of India’s space race. India has since had several space achievements. In the Indo-Soviet Manned Mission in 1984, Indian Air Force pilot Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian Citizen to fly into space. In 2005 was the launch of the First Indian Remote Sensing Satellite Cartosat -1. Chandrayan -1, India’s first lunar mission was launched in 2008 and India’s first Interplanetary mission Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also known as Mangalyaan, the world's most cost-efficient Mars mission, was launched to planet Mars in November 2013, making India the first country to reach the orbit of Mars on its maiden attempt, in September 2014. India set a world record in 2017 when successfully PSLV -C37 launched 104 satellites into space in a single mission. in July 2019 was the launch of the Chandrayaan-2 satellite into earth orbit which was injected into the lunar orbit in September.

India’s latest rocket the GSLV Mk III could be India’s vehicle for India’s first manned spaceflight program Gaganyaan. India is now privatizing space exploration and supporting innovation and looks to build its own space stations. India has gone a long way since it first stepped into the space world, all this is just the beginning of reaching for the stars and exploring the wonders of the universe. India will leave an even more prominent mark on the history of space travel and India’s human space mission in the years to come.

Alby Mariam Thomas, X-D, Indian Central School