vssc-summary

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VSSC

VSSC is the lead Centre for development of satellite launch vehicles and associated

technologies. The Centre pursues active research and development in a host of distinct

technology domains like aeronautics, avionics, composites, etc with a view to achieve self-

reliance in the high tech realm of launch vehicle technology. VSSC has its origin in the

Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS). TERLS became operational on

November 21, 1963 with the successful launching of a two-stage sounding rocket, 'Nike-

Apache'. After the death of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, on December 30, 1971, the whole complex

at Thiruvananthapuram was renamed as "Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre".

Situated near the northern boundary of Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station

(TERLS), a few meters from the coastline, St Mary Magdalene Church, lined with high-

tech artifacts and visuals speak, the tell tales on the birth of Indian Space Programme.

It was in this church that the first rocket systems were assembled and integrated in

1962. The Bishop House, which is situated close to the church, functioned as the office of

the newly set up rocket launching station. The office of the Director of TERLS was housed

here. As the pace of the scientific activity gathered momentum, new projects came into

being which necessitated the construction of new buildings. The first in the line were the

Control Centre and then the R&D complex on the Veli Hills, all of which relegated the church

building into the background.

But the good old church refused to go into oblivion! It sprang back to life withrenewed vigour. It was converted into a photographic facility - this time as the official

chronicler of the Indian Space Programme. In 1985 the church was converted into Space

Museum.

The origin and growth of Indian Space programme is closely knitted with an old

fishermen's hamlet in Thumba, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Five km down west, in the

verdant settings of the Thumba beach, the space museum, a permanent exhibition set

inside the erstwhile St.Mary Magdalene Church unravels the golden successes of Indian

space programme.

VSSC is the largest of all ISRO centres, which has its main establishments at Veli and

Thumba.The first rocket systems were assembled in St Mary Magdalene Church in 1962 and

the good old church was renewed and in 1985 it was converted into Space Museum.

In 1962, the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) was

established. Homi Bhabha, then the father of India's nuclear program, along with Vikram

Sarabhai, took into consideration number of sites situated in Kerala to construct a rocket

station. After long discussion they both finalized Thumba as the appropriate place. Thumba

is a small village, until then, known only for fishing situated near

the Thiruvananthapuram airport in Kerala.[2]

The newly built rocket launching pad was set amidst coconut groves. A local Catholic church,

the St Mary Magadelene's Church served as the main office for the scientists. The bishop'shouse was converted into a workshop. A cattle shed became the laboratory in which the
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young Indian scientists worked on the first sounding rockets. Upon launching the first

sounding rocket (Nike-Apache) on 21 Nov 1963, Prof. Sarabhai shared with his team his

dream of an Indian Satellite Launch Vehicle. Over the next 12 years, the United

States, Britain, France and the USSR helped India build and launch more than 350 sounding

rockets from Thumba.

Abdul Kalam

Born on 15th October 1931 at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen

Abdul Kalam, specialized in Aeronautical Engineering from Madras Institute of

Technology. Dr. Kalam made significant contribution as Project Director to develop India's

first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III) which successfully injected the Rohini

satellite in the near earth orbit in July 1980 and made India an exclusive member of Space

Club. He was responsible for the evolution of ISRO's launch vehicle programme, particularly

the PSLV configuration. After working for two decades in ISRO and mastering launch vehicletechnologies, Dr. Kalam took up the responsibility of developing Indigenous Guided Missiles

at Defence Research and Development Organisation as the Chief Executive of Integrated

Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP). He was responsible for the development

and operationalisation of AGNI and PRITHVI Missiles and for building indigenous capability

in critical technologies through networking of multiple institutions. He was the Scientific

Adviser to Defence Minister and Secretary, Department of Defence Research &

Development from July 1992 to December 1999. During this period he led to the

weaponisation of strategic missile systems and the Pokhran-II nuclear tests in collaboration

with Department of Atomic Energy, which made India a nuclear weapon State. He also gave

thrust to self-reliance in defence systems by progressing multiple development tasks andmission projects such as Light Combat Aircraft.

As Chairman of Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) and as

an eminent scientist, he led the country with the help of 500 experts to arrive at Technology

Vision 2020 giving a road map for transforming India from the present developing status to

a developed nation. Dr. Kalam has served as the Principal Scientific Advisor to the

Government of India, in the rank of Cabinet Minister, from November 1999 to November

2001 and was responsible for evolving policies, strategies and missions for many

development applications. Dr. Kalam was also the Chairman, Ex-officio, of the Scientific

Advisory Committee to the Cabinet (SAC-C) and piloted India Millennium Mission 2020.

Dr. Kalam took up academic pursuit as Professor, Technology & Societal Transformation at

Anna University, Chennai from November 2001 and was involved in teaching and research

tasks. Above all he took up a mission to ignite the young minds for national development by

meeting high school students across the country.

In his literary pursuit four of Dr. Kalam's books - "Wings of Fire", "India 2020 - A Vision for

the New Millennium", "My journey" and "Ignited Minds - Unleashing the power within

India" have become household names in India and among the Indian nationals abroad.

These books have been translated in many Indian languages.
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Dr. Kalam is one of the most distinguished scientists of India with the unique honour of

receiving honorary doctorates from 30 universities and institutions. He has been awarded

the coveted civilian awards - Padma Bhushan (1981) and Padma Vibhushan (1990) and the

highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (1997). He is a recipient of several other awards and

Fellow of many professional institutions.

Dr. Kalam became the 11th President of India on 25th July 2002. His focus is on

transforming India into a developed nation by 2020.

Vikram Sarabhai

Dr.Vikram Sarabhai was born on 12 August 1919 in the city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat State in

western India. The Sarabhai family was an important and rich Jain business family. His

father Ambalal Sarabhai was an affluent industrialist and owned many mills in Gujarat.

Vikram Sarabhai was one of the eight children of Ambalal and Sarla Devi. Sarabhai

matriculated from the Gujarat College in Ahmedabad after passing the IntermediateScience examination. After that he moved to England and joined the St. John's College,

University of Cambridge. He received the Tripos in Natural Sciences from Cambridge in

1940. With the escalation of the Second World War, Sarabhai returned to India and joined

the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and began research in cosmic rays under the

guidance of Sir C. V. Raman, a Nobel Prize winner. He returned to Cambridge after the war

in 1945 and was awarded a PhD degree in 1947 for his thesis titled Cosmic Ray

investigation in Tropical Latitudes. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai died on 30 December 1971 at

Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

Dr. Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai, the Father of the Indian space program has put India on the

international map in the field of space research. He also, made equally pioneeringcontributions in other fields: he worked in the fields of textiles, pharmaceuticals, nuclear

power, electronics and many others incessantly till last. Dr. Sarabhai was a creative

scientist, a successful and forward looking industrialist, an innovator of the highest order,

a great institution builder, an educationist with a difference, a connoisseur of arts, an

entrepreneur of social change, a pioneering management educator and more.

The establishment of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) was one of his

greatest achievements. He successfully convinced the government of the importance of a

space programme for a developing country like India after the Russian Sputnik launch. Dr.

Sarabhai emphasized the importance of a space program in his quote:

"There are some who question the relevance of space activities in a developing nation. To

us, there is no ambiguity of purpose. We do not have the fantasy of competing with the

economically advanced nations in the exploration of the moon or the planets or manned

space-flight. "

"But we are convinced that if we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and in the

community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced

technologies to the real problems of man and society."


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Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, widely regarded as the father of India's nuclear science

program, supported Dr. Sarabhai in setting up the first rocket launching station in India.

This center was established at Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram on the coast of the

Arabian Sea, primarily because of its proximity to the equator. After a remarkable effort in

setting up the infrastructure, personnel, communication links, and launch pads, the

inaugural flight was launched on November 21, 1963 with a sodium vapour payload. As a

result of Dr. Sarabhai's dialogue with NASA in 1966, the Satellite Instructional Television

Experiment (SITE) was launched during July 1975 - July 1976 (when Dr.Sarabhai was no

more). Dr. Sarabhai started a project for the fabrication and launch of an Indian Satellite.

As a result, the first Indian satellite, Aryabhata, was put in orbit in 1975 from a Russian

Cosmodrome. Dr. Sarabhai was very interested in science education and founded a

Community Science Centre at Ahmedabad in 1966. Today, the Centre is called the Vikram

A Sarabhai Community Science Centre.

Vikram Sarabhai was the main personality behind the launching of Indias first satellite,

Aryabhatta. He is considered as thefather of the Indian Space Programme. Vikram

Ambalal Sarabhai was among the few scientists who devoted their entire life to the progress

of science in our country.

Vikram Sarabhai was born on August 12, 1919 at Ahmedabad, Gujarat to Shri Ambalal

Sarabhai and Smt. Sarladevi Sarabhai, in a family of Industrialists. His father Ambalal

Sarabhai was an affluent industrialist and owned many mills in Gujarat. Vikram Sarabhai was

one of the eight children of Ambalal and Sarla Devi. He had his early education in a privateschool. Here atmosphere injected into the young by the seeds of scientific curiosity,

ingenuity and creativity. From this school he proceeded to Cambridge for his college

education and took the tripods degree from St. Johns College in 1940. When World War II

began, he returned home and joined as a research scholar under Sir C.V. Raman at the IISc

IISc, Bangalore. In September, 1942 Vikram Sarabhai married Mrinalini Sarabhai who was a

celebrated classical dancer of India. The wedding was held in Chennai without anyone from

Vikrams side of the family attending the wedding ceremony because of the ongoing Quit

India movement led by Mahatma Gandhi. Vikram and Mrinalini had two children Kartikeya

and Mallika. Mallika Sarabhai is a renowned dancer.

He started his work on cosmic rays and built the necessary equipment with which he took

measurements. He returned to Cambridge in 1945. In 1947 he was awarded the Ph.D.

degree. The physical Research Laboratory (PRL) was established in November 1947 in a few

rooms in M.G. Science Institute of the Ahmedabad Education Society, which was founded by

his parents. Subsequently, it got support from the Council of Scientific and Industrial

Research (CSIR) and the Department of Atomic Energy.

His interest in solar Physics and cosmic rays led him to set up many observation stations

around the country. Vikram Sarabhai established centers for scientific research in several

places of India. He was instrumental in establishing the physical Research Laboratory (PRL)in Ahmedabad. In this, he formed the Group for the Improvement of Science Education, in


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1963. In the same year, he established the Nehru Foundation for Development, for the

study of social and education problems.

In 1966, under its auspices, he established the Community Science Center, whose object

was to spread scientific knowledge, to create interest in science and to promote

experimentation among students, teachers and the general public. After the sudden death

of Dr. Sarabhai in 1971, the then Prime Minister of India, Smt. Indira Gandhi, renamed the

Centre as the Vikram A. Sarabhai Community Science Centre, to associate its name with that

of its founder. To train efficient managers of factories, he started the Indian Institute of

Management (IIM) at Ahmedabad. Of all the institutions, he established the most important

were the Indian Space Research Organization with Centers at Thumba, Ahmedabad,

Shriharikota and Arvi. He established Rocket Launching Stations at Thumba and

Shrihatikota. Along with his work on the science front, he took utmost interest and managed

family business of Textiles and Pharmaceuticals.

He was also responsible for the Equatorial Rocket Building Station at Thumba. Sarabhai setup the Ahmedabad Textile Industries Research Association, a laboratory for research in

physics and the Indian Institute of Management. Sarabhai was the second chairman of

Indias Atomic Energy Commission and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

Sarabhais study of cosmic rays under the eminent scientist Dr. C.V.Raman revealed that

cosmic rays are a stream of energy particles reaching the earth from the outer space, being

influenced on their way by the sun, the atmosphere and magnetism. This study helps in

observing terrestrial magnetism and the atmosphere, the nature of the sun and outer space.

He was conferred Padma Vibhushan in 1972. He was also awarded Dr. Shanti Swarup

Bhatnagar Medal in Physics in 1962.

The establishment of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was one of his greatest

achievements. He successfully convinced the government of the importance of a space

programme for a developing country like India after the Russian Sputnik launch.

Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, supported Dr. Sarabhai in setting up the first rocket launching

station in India. This center was established at Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram on the

coast of the Arabian Sea, Primarily because of its proximity to the equator. After a

remarkable effort in setting up the infrastructure, personnel, communication links, and

launch pads, the inaugural flight was launched on November 21, 1963 with a sodium vapour

payload.

As a result of Dr. Sarabhais dialogue with NASA in 1966, the Satellite Instructional Television

Experiment (SITE) was launched during July 1975-July 1976 (When Dr. Sarabhai was no

more). Dr. Sarabhai started a project for the fabrication and launch of an Indian Satellite. As

a result, the first Indian satellite, Aryabhatta, was put in orbit in 1975 from a Russian

Cosmodrome.

Dr. Sarabhai was very interested in science education and founded a Community Science

Centre at Ahmedabad in 1966. Today, the Centre is called the Vikram. A. Sarabhai

Community Science Centre. This great scientist could be credited with launching India into


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space age. Vikram Sarabhai died at the age of 52 on December 31, 1971 at Kovalam,

Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

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