How ISRO’s 100th mission reflects its original startup spirit
Summary
ISRO's early years were marked by innovation, drama and a never-say-die spirit
In the prologue to ISRO: A Personal History, the book I co-wrote with my husband, R. Aravamudan—one of the first to join India’s fledgling space programme in 1962—he described the excitement and anxiety that preceded the first-ever launch from Sriharikota on 10 August 1979. “By the second half of the 1970s we were on a high," he wrote, “we were getting ready to launch SLV3 our first homegrown launch vehicle."
They were not a battle-hardened team of professionals with scores of successful rocket and satellite launches behind them. “But we were young, highly motivated and hardworking. None us had been part of an actual satellite launch, and now we were thirsting to realise our pre-flight dreams," he recalled.
They were not put off by the sceptics who asked what a bunch of youngsters could do or scoffed that they were “reinventing the wheel". Or even the fact that the launch was taking place five years after the date for which it was originally planned. All those involved with that first launch were new to the process, and both ISRO and the government backed them without question. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the mission director, had built the SLV (satellite launch vehicle) with his team, and Aravamudan had designed and built the tracking system from scratch. Both had been close friends for over a decade, from their days at the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station.
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The launch was scheduled for early morning. Aravamudan was sitting at the console monitoring his tracking systems. “The countdown clock was ticking and Kalam had given the mission director’s clearance for the launch. Things were moving smoothly. The umbilical cable was pulled out and the vehicle was on its own batteries. The countdown edged towards the dramatic last ten seconds. Right on the dot, at count zero, the first stage ignited and the vehicle majestically lifted off. Those of us involved with the launch were intent on our consoles and did not go out to see the take-off."
The blast of the rocket sounded right, but almost immediately it lost control and splashed dramatically into the sea. The team was very depressed though they knew that such failures were common in the rocket business the world over. Their mentors, Satish Dhawan and Brahm Prakash, cheered them up and the young team went back to work, detecting and fixing the leak that caused the failure.
The second launch took place almost year later and faced two glitches, one of which had nothing to do with the rocket. Doordarshan wanted to telecast the launch live but did not have the necessary equipment. Some ISRO engineers came with the ingenious idea of putting a transponder inside a huge balloon to be tethered at Gummidipoondi, halfway between Chennai and Sriharikota. Unfortunately, no one had taken into consideration the strong winds. Hours before the telecast, the balloon broke away from its tether and disappeared. I happened to be in SHAR (now Satish Dhawan Space Centre) as I had been invited to provide the commentary along with Aravamudan and Professor Yashpal. The Doordarshan crew had to gather their wits, record the commentary and drive it to Chennai so it could be telecast “deferred live".
Meanwhile, on the launch padthere was more drama. One of the two umbilical cables attached to the rocket, which was to be removed by remote control, got stuck. A ‘hold’ was called while the team tried to decide what to do. Since the vehicle was armed it was unsafe to go near it.
A technician named Bapiah saved the day. He volunteered to climb the 60ft ladder—as tall as the rocket itself—when he reached the top, he gave it a huge kick to dislodge it.
The rest, as they say, is history. Seventeen years after the first foreign-made Nike Apache was launched at Thumba, our own Indian-made rocket was successfully launched from Sriharikota. And now, a little more than 45 years later, the 100th Indian rocket was launched from the same spot.
In between, the Sriharikota range has seen so much growth and drama. VIPs have come and gone. Rockets have failed and succeeded. Veteran engineers have shed tears over it all, of joy and of disappointment.
Over the years, the launchers grew bigger and bigger as did the rockets. The number of failures decreased and the number of launches per year increased. The rockets performed more complex tasks and carried technologically advanced satellites from India and gave rides to foreign satellites. We are now on the cusp of a new era with more complex vehicles waiting to be launched and a human-flight mission in the final stages of planning. Space-related startups full of young people bursting with ideas are being mentored by veteran ISRO scientists. It’s a hat-tip to “India’s first startup", ISRO, which has retained its spirit through the generations.
Gita Aravamudan is an independent journalist based in Bengaluru, whose books include ISRO: A Personal History, Disappearing Daughters: The Tragedy of Female Foeticide and Baby Makers: The Story Of Indian Surrogacy.
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