Space Programme and Developed India Vision

... I had the privilege of being a member of this great community for over twenty years. I recall with profound fulfillment my early days in the company of many of you as we were at the starting point of implementing Dr Vikram Sarabhai's space vision. In this island, I have walked with you many times filled with happiness when we succeeded and also we experienced pain when we failed a few times. During all our successes and failures, our great companion was hard work and devotion.

Missions of national importance and significance have been achieved with the given resources due to the highly devoted, expert and dedicated service of the entire space community. From the days of the founder Chairman Dr Vikram Sarabhai, successive Chairmen, Prof Satish Dhawan, Prof U R Rao, and Dr K Kasturirangan have led you with missionary spirit, skill and sensitivity. It had been my privilege to work with all of them in various ways and now I wish once again the present Chairman Mr Madhavan Nair and the space community good fortune and successes in all your new missions. This is my first visit to SHAR centre after it has been named after Prof Satish Dhawan, one of the greatest sons of our country. I cherish every moment of my privileged association with this great technologist, teacher, visionary, administrator and, above all, a wonderful and noble human being. SHAR symbolizes many things to me. It represents the consummation of visions, concepts and high technology; confluence of disciplines and more so of meeting of human minds. You have launched 17 launch vehicles from here attempting the 18th one in a week from now.

... It was on 9th of October 1971 the country witnessed the first ever launch of a sounding rocket - 125 mm in diameter - from SHAR, less than three years after the decision was made to set up the launching station at SHAR. I recollect the pioneering efforts by many stalwarts in building the launch pad and associated facilities. Very soon SPROB was taking shape and other facilities like STEX grew up. I recall the long nights, I and my team used to discuss, the processing and static testing of motors for SLV-3. The untiring efforts by VSSC and SHAR teams ensured that the four types of motors went through their qualification satisfactorily. Parallely, the launch complex facilities were being set up. Along with that, several mechanisms of dealing with a mission, the mission readiness reviews, and the launch authorization board were getting evolved and implemented. The excitement of launch campaign, the tension of count down, the emotions of a launch all have become history and have been deeply etched in my memory.