Indian space programmme comes of age

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From churning out the small 358-kg satellite Aryabhatta successfully in 1975, the Indian space programme has traversed a long distance in the past four decades.

The journey saw the premium space agency deploy bicycle for transporting rockets meant for launch, and even converting a toilet into a satellite data receiving centre in Bengaluru.

Today, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has developed enough capabilities to build satellites weighing over 3,000 kg indigenously, and also launched satellites of other countries.

UR Rao, former chairman of Isro, said it was a huge challenge for Isro during initial days, considering everything had to be started from scratch.

"Majority of the team members were new to the field. The time given for Aryabhatta's launch was just two-and-a-half years, so that it could be flown on a Russian rocket," said Rao. The satellite was developed at a cost of around Rs 3 crore.

After the launch of Aryabhatta, Isro launched the experimental earth observation satellite Bhaskara-I on June 7, 1979.

It had built the APPLE (Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment) communication satellite, which laid the ground for the INSAT series satellites possessing multiple capabilities - telecom, television, meteorological and imaging.

The INSAT-1B communication satellite was a major breakthrough for the Indian space research.

Today, India is reckoned as a serious player in the global satellite launching and manufacturing industry. It has demonstrated its frugal engineering with the successful launch of Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM).

Currently, Isro is gearing up to the launch of GSLV-MkII rocket, carrying GSAT communication satellite sometime in July or August 2015. The rocket will be powered by the indigenous cryogenic engine.