ISRO - Always in the Forefront. Review on Indian Space Research Organization - ISRO

The Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO in short, is one of the few organisations of the Government of India, which has made India proud in the comity of nations. India has a very successful track record in satellite communication. We are in the communication decade with satellites orbiting the sky and computer terminal facilities available in many homes. There has ben a giant leap for mankind in space exploration during the last decade, and there is already a very long hop for television. Kalpana was a space explorer par excellence, and she, along with the other six explorers, sacrificed their lives in the sky. They belonged to the world.

When I put myself in the shoes of Kalpana's father after hearing and seeing in TV about the unbelievable accident, I was really in tears. There was another reason. Kalpana is the name of my elder daughter, and she is a few months older than my second daughter, Kasturi. I and my wife are still mourning her death. President Kalam, being a Space Scientist himself, says that more research and more explorations in fool proof space crafts have to be taken up to keep India in the vanguard of space research.

It was Arthur C. Clarke, a British Radio Expert who had introduced in October 1945 a novel idea of providing artificial satellites through the application of rocketry and microwave techniques, in stationary orbits around the earth to function as relays for transmission from earth. His original idea was to place satellites into orbit at an altitude of 36,000 km in the equatorial plane, as this offered greater possibilities for communication purposes. Such a satellite in this orbit revolves round the earth in about 24 hours, which is the speed of the earth itself; and therefore, always keeps the same position relative to the earth's surface. This is called a geo-synchronous satellite and appears to have a fixed position in the sky. The NASA ATS-6 Satellite, used by India during the SITE (Satellite Instructional Television Experiment) year (1975 -76) was a satellite of this type.

The late Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, who was the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, and Secretary of the Atomic Energy Department, had said that India should use satellite communication for its national needs meaningfully and with imagination.

India's achievement in Space Communication are: Aryabhatta (1975), Bhaskara (1979), Rohini through SLV-3, India's first Satellite Launch Vehicle (1980), APPLE, India's first Communication Satellite (1981) and Bhaskara -II (November 1981). After the demonstrated success of APPLE, India's INSAT (Indian National Satellite) era began. Necessary Earth Stations and other infrastructure were constructed and commissioned on record time. Professor Yash Pal and other scientists were very closely involved in the programme. Professor U. R. Rao was the Chairman of ISRO and the present Chairman is Dr. Kasturi Rangan.

The only snag in Satellite Communication is that with so many satellites up in the sky, no country in the world can hide any thing of its geographical contours. Satellite is a Communication Equaliser.