ISRO - the pride story ..

It all started here in St. Mary Magdalene church in
Thumba, Trivandrum, Kerala, now a space museum ..

There are some missions and organisations in Indian history which have brought respect to the country and have helped in ameliorating the sufferings of the people.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is one such organisation that has been earning respect around the world for all its great actions and achievements and at the same time ably enabling efficient and cheap two-way communications, broadcasts, weather forecasting to help farmers, predicting natural calamities helping reduce damage and loss of lives and so on, not only for the country but for the neighbours around it.

How did ISRO pull off the unbelievable in Indian history? There us no one organisation in India that has brought so much respect and adoration across the world than ISRO. It started from humble beginnings initially launching weather balloons, weather rockets etc from Thumba near Trivandrum in 1960.

Pl click on this link for the timeline of growth of ISRO ..

A big pranaam .. Let us never forget this great soul !

The scientists who have led ISRO have been great leaders. Leadership made all the difference. Though personally I would not comment on each great leader in ISRO, it all started when Nehru asked Vikram Sarabhai to setup the first weather sounding rocket station at Thumba near Trivandrum in Kerala, India. The Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) formed in 1962 which later transformed into Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 1969, has brought laurel after laurel to Indian science and technology. Dr Satish Dhawan, Dr. UR Rao are names that cannot be missed.

We are continuing our winning ways and in June '16, we are going to launch 22 satellites of which three are Indian and the rest foreign, including US, UK and so on. (the second biggest contingent in history of global space science and technology)

Effective cost management, committed, motivated, qualified and well trained technical manpower, great preparation, high reliability of missions and great leadership have been the strong points of Indian space technological advancements and specifically that of ISRO and various organisations under it.

Even though China, our neighbour, breathing down the necks of US and India. has made great strides in the economic, political (under a one-party rule government) and infrastructure front, it is found to be lacking in terms of space technology. The coming decades is for India and ISRO. By offering leadership to the world, I am sure India will be able to handhold other countries and come up with great  ideas, offer leadership and help remove the great scourges of poverty, diseases, environmental degradation, climate change and poor infrastructure and development using technology and specifically the fallouts of space technology, across the different parts of the world.

And when I know that my friends are at pivotal positions in ISRO in its leap into space, it is a matter of great pride and contentment. The world can rest assured, India will not fail to live up to the global expectations !

ISRO in continuing its high performance streak, is carrying 13 US satellites weighing 195 kgs among a total of 22 satellites in June '16 aboard the PSLV. This will find no mention in US media as possibly  US' pride is affected.  Even China or European Space Agency does not have a reliable and low-cost launch program to help US. It is not that US (NASA) lacks the technical competence to reliably launch small satellites, they really lack cost competitiveness to match up to Indian prowess in this area. In all my follow up of global space ventures and expeditions, US is yet to address the "high launching cost" issue ! And as long as they can afford, they never would care to address it too.. 

The global tech trend is towards sending lighter hi-tech satellites as communication and more processes and phenomena are getting digitised and turning to IoT for control ..

It's not far when US space program will become too costly and redundant, if not irrelevant !! 

george..