ISRO’s Path to 100th Satellite Launch

Why in news?

With the recent launch of ISRO's 100th satellite, it is imperative to know the strengths and track its progress over the years.

Institution building is a key to great power making

What is the recent launch?

ISRO recently launched its 100th satellite Cartosat-2, a weather observation satellite.
The PSLV carried along with this, 30 other satellites from its spaceport of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
They include two satellites from India and 28 satellites from six countries - Canada, Finland, France, Korea, the UK and the US.

How has ISRO evolved?

The Indian National Committee on Space Research was constituted by the Indian government in 1962, with Vikram Sarabhai as its chairman.
This was mandated to look into the possibility of having a national space programme.
ISRO started with the launch of Nike-Apache Sounding rockets from Thumba way back in 1963.
The “leapfrogging” for India came with the famous SITE (Satellite Instructional Television Experiment) launch in 1975.
This was an experimental satellite communication project to provide educational television programmes on agriculture and farming.
Jointly developed by ISRO and NASA’s cooperation, it helped both farmers and Indian space scientists to gain technical expertise.
Thereafter ISRO has made strides with many of its successes and is now a major player in the field of outer space.

What are its strengths?

Personnel - ISRO has always believed in the “homegrown” talent and has provided them enough chances and platform.
Most of its engineers and scientists come from departments of basic sciences from India's universities.
Objective - When Soviets launched the Sputnik-1 in the late 1950s, a cold war of space rivalry began between them and the Americans.
Being a newly independent nation and facing resource scarcity, India never saw outer space as a battleground for supremacy.
The primary idea with ISRO was to use space technology for developmental purposes.
The Indian space programme, since its inception, has primarily been a “civilian” space programme.
Institution - ISRO, as an institution, started functioning only from August 15, 1969.
As an institution, it has been a standing proof for the age-old proverb - “institution building is a key to great power making”.
It started delivering successfully almost every time and even after some failures, ISRO has come out stronger every time.

What were the challenges?

The National Committee on Space Research was constituted in 1962, the same year when India lost a costly war to China.
The then condition of India’s finance was not conducive for any space goals and determinations.
Thus, engineers and scientists in Indian space programme were always under a burden of lot of expectations to prove the purpose.
There were critics arguing against spending on “elite” things like outer space when millions were toiling hard under poverty.

However, the resolve of ISRO and political will of the ruling dispensation in the 1960s made India take forward its space dreams.
ISRO still works within very low budgets, as compared to the huge budgets of NASA and other space programmes.

Source: Financial Express

Quick Fact

Thumba

Thumba is a suburb of Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala.
The Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) is an Indian spaceport operated by the ISRO.
Thumba is located very close to the magnetic equator of the Earth, making it the ideal location to conduct atmospheric research.
It is ideal for low-altitude, upper atmosphere and ionosphere studies.
It is currently used by ISRO for launching sounding rockets/research rocket (an instrument-carrying rocket to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight).

Magnetic Equator

The magnetic equator is defined as the line around the earth where the magnetic field is horizontal, or parallel to the earth’s surface.
It does not circle the earth as a smooth line like the geographic equator, but instead it meanders north and south.