The Week India – July 21, 2019

20 THE WEEK • JULY 21, 2019

COVER STORY

CHANDRAYAAN-2

launched, however, was from a church ground in Thumba,

Thiruvananthapuram. The young team included hand-

picked scientists like former president of India A.P.J. Abdul

Kalam, who described the launch in his book, Ignited Minds.

Sarabhai liked Thumba, as the magnetic equator of the

earth passes through it. The grounds where the church of

Mary Magdalene stood were ideal for the launch of India’s

first rocket, the American Nike-Apache sounding rocket. He

approached the bishop for help. The bishop asked him to

attend the next mass and tell the congregation of his dream.

Sarabhai’s appeal to those gathered was simple and sincere.

The congregation readily relocated to another village within

100 days, and India’s space programme took root. Scientists

commuted from the railway station to this remote hamlet

by bicycle, and even brought rocket parts on these bicycles.

(Till late into the 1970s, bullock carts were routinely used to

ferry satellites.) On November 21, 1963, India launched its

first rocket into space, six years before the birth of ISRO itself.

The trail of smoke the rocket left behind was ephemeral.

But it etched a trajectory for India’s space programme. Kalam

described how Sarabhai told his colleagues that he dreamt of

India having its own launch vehicle. That dream

materialised in 1980, though after his death,

when India successfully placed Rohini in orbit

with its own Space Launch Vehicle-3.

When convincing the government to have a

space programme, Sarabhai had said: “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 ad-

vanced 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 ad-

vanced technologies to the real problems of man

and society.”

Space applications remain the mainstay of

India’s space programme. It started with the

Satellite Telecommunications Experiments Pro-

ject (STEP) to bring informational programmes