All of you must have seen the telecasts and photos of the " 25th Successive, Successful launch of PSLV" as stated by Radhakrishnan.
But many of you may not know the humble beginnings. So, here goes----
Humble Beginnings for a Great Success
Though India today is considered as
one of the prominent countries conducting many space activities, the Indian
space program began in a modest way with the formation of the Indian National
Committee on Space Research by the Government of India in
1962.
The program formally began on
November 21, 1963 with the launch of a 28 feet long American ‘Nike-Apache’
Sounding Rocket from Thumba, near Thiruvananthapuram. It carried a small French
payload (scientific instrument) to study the winds in the upper atmosphere. [Sounding
rockets are small research rockets that carry instruments to study upper
atmosphere and space. They cannot launch satellites].
The
Event
It
is 21th November 1963. A beautiful day with clear skies. History is about to be
created at the small coastal village of Thumba in Thiruvananthapuram. A bicycle carrying a cone-shaped device
trundles onto the sandy beach.
A
small team of budding scientists soon gets down to business. Among them
a frail young man with long hair. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who later went on to
achieve great distinction and become the President of India. Another local boy
watches the launch several kilometers away from the terrace of the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram--The future ISRO
chairman G. Madhavan
Nair and advisor to various strategic projects.
The
newly built rocket launching pad was set on the beach, a clearing in
the midst of coconut groves. A local Catholic church, the St Mary Magdalene’s
Church served as the main office for the scientists. The small place of
worship became the mainstay for the team of rocket scientists, including A P J
Abdul Kalam. The first drawings of some of the earliest rockets were made in
this church, now a space museum. The bishop’s house was converted into a
workshop. A cattle shed became the laboratory in which the young Indian
scientists worked on the first sounding rockets. Scientists travelled daily
from Thiruvananthapuram in buses, carrying lunch bought at the railway station.
Many rocket parts were carried by the scientists on bicycles from one
place to another within the sprawling range of Thumba.
WHEN the orange trail lit up the twilight sky over the
fishing village of Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram on November 21, 1963, there
was excitement in Kerala and the neighboring districts in Tamil Nadu. The
Kerala Legislative Assembly was adjourned for a few minutes so that the members
could watch the glorious spectacle left behind in the western sky by the Nike
Apache rocket, which was imported from the United States. The two-stage rocket,
weighing 715 kg and powered by solid propellants, climbed to an altitude of 208
km, releasing sodium vapor that lit up the sky. The seeds of India's modern
rocketry program had been sown.
NEXT
The first experimental flight of SLV-3, in August 1979,
was only partially successful.
Satellite Launch Vehicle-3 (SLV-3), India's first
experimental satellite launch vehicle was successfully launched on July 18,
1980 from SHAR Centre Sriharikota, when Rohini satellite, RS-1, was placed in
orbit. SLV-3 was a 22 m long, all solid, four stage vehicle weighing 17 tonnes
capable of placing 40 kg class payloads in low earth orbit.
It employed an open loop guidance (with stored pitch program) to steer the
vehicle in flight along pre-determined trajectory.
Apart from the July 1980 launch, there were two more
launches held in May 1981 and April 1983, orbiting Rohini satellites carrying
remote sensing sensors.
Finally
the workhorse PSLV:
Typical
Parameters of PSLV
Lift-off weight 295 tonnes
Pay Load 1600 kg in to 620 km Polar Orbit,
1060 kg in to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO)
Height 44 meters
PSLV
Milestones
PSLV-C24
launched IRNSS-1B on April 04, 2014
PSLV-C25
launched Mars Orbiter Mission Spacecraft on November 05, 2013
PSLV-C22 launched IRNSS-1A on July 01, 2013
PSLV-C20
launched SARAL and six commercial payloads
February 25, 2013
PSLV-C21 launched SPOT 6 and
PROITERES September
09, 2012
PSLV-C19 launched RISAT-1 April
26, 2012
PSLV-C18
launched Megha-Tropiques, SRMSat,
VesselSat-1
and Jugnu October 12, 2011
PSLV-C17
launched GSAT - 12 July
15, 2011
PSLV-C16
launched RESOURCESAT-2,YOUTHSAT&X-SAT April 20, 2011
PSLV-C15 launched CARTOSAT-2B, ALSAT-2A,
NLS
6.1 & 6.2 and STUDSAT July 12, 2010
PSLV-C14 launched Oceansat - 2 and
Six Nanosatellites September 23, 2009
PSLV-C12
launched RISAT-2 and ANUSAT April 20, 2009
PSLV-C11 launched CHANDRAYAAN-I, October 22, 2008
PSLV-C9 launched CARTOSAT-2A, IMS-1
and eight
nano-satellites April
28, 2008
PSLV-C10 launched TECSAR January 23, 2008
PSLV-C8 launched AGILE April 23,
2007
PSLV-C7
launched CARTOSAT-2, SRE-1, LAPAN-TUBSAT
and
PEHUENSAT-1 January 10, 2007
PSLV-C6 launched CARTOSAT-1 and
HAMSAT May 5, 2005
PSLV-C5
launched RESOURCESAT-1(IRS-P6) October 17, 2003
PSLV-C4
launched KALPANA-1(METSAT) September 12, 2002
PSLV-C3
launched TES October
22, 2001
PSLV-C2
launched OCEANSAT(IRS-P4), KITSAT-3
and
DLR-TUBSAT May 26, 1999
PSLV-C1 launched IRS-1D September 29, 1997
Successful but a lower altitude was achieved
PSLV-D3 launched IRS-P3 March 21, 1996
PSLV-D2
launched IRS-P2 October 15, 1994
PSLV-D1 launched IRS-1E September 20, 1993
(Unsuccessful)
The
Failure and the partial Success (failure)
IRS 1E on board
PSLV-D1
On
September 20, 1993 a PSLV-D1, the first developmental flight, rocket failed
during launch. A significant attitude disturbance occurred during second to
third-stage separation, causing the attitude control command to exceed its
maximum value. The vehicle crashed into the Bay of Bengal 700 seconds after takeoff.
IRS
1D on board PSLV-C1
On
September 29, 1997 a PSLV-C1 rocket has failed during launch.
The
fourth stage was shut down by a software override timer after burning 435 s,
before reaching the target orbit or depleting propellant. The injection
velocity was 140 m/s low, resulting in orbit 301x823 km instead of the
planned 817 km circular SSO. Initially, a leak of helium gas from one of
the components in the fourth stage was suspected, similar to recent Long March
3 launch failure, but later ruled out. Resulted orbit was partially
corrected using satellite on-board thrusters, thereby raising the perigee to
737 km, while the apogee remained at 821 km.
GSLV
and What Have You: WE still are finding our feet on GSLV
and MOM, Chandrayaan
Matter gathered from
- INDIA IN
SPACE: A REMARKABLE ODYSSEY By B R Guruprasad
- http://www.isro.org/launchvehicles/PSLV/pslv.aspx
4. Reaching out to the stars
T.S. SUBRAMANIAN
The Indian Space Research Organization
celebrates 40 years of excellence in space.
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November
21, 1963: The Nike- Apache rocket 
being readied for launch.
At
the SLV-3 integration laboratory at VSSC,
(from
right) Prof. Yash Pal, then Member,
Space
Commission; P.N. Haksar, Principal Secretary
to
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi; Prof. Satish Dhawan,
then
Chairman, ISRO; and A.P.J. Kalam, then Project Director,
SLV-3.
First
Indian Rocket being carried to the Sea Shore on a Bicycle
