December 29,2004 

The year 2004 was quite eventful for the Indian space programme. The successful launch of EDUSAT by India's own launch vehicle, GSLV, on September 20, 2004, was an important landmark. It was the first operational flight of GSLV and its success demonstrated the reliability of the vehicle. The launch of EDUSAT, India's first thematic satellite dedicated for educational services, the inauguration of the first cluster of Village Resource Centres and further expansion of Telemedicine network reiterated India's commitment to use space technology for societal applications. The India-US Conference on Space Science, Applications and Commerce marked a new beginning in the India US space cooperation.

The following were the important events of the Space Programme during 2004.

1. January 28, 2004: Inauguration of EDUSAT Pilot Project:
   ISRO launched the EDUSAT pilot project in Karnataka as part of the first phase of EUSAT programme. Under the pilot project, Visveswaraya Technological Institute has networked about 100 engineering colleges for conducting technological courses.
    
2. February 1, 2004: Atmospheric Aerosol Campaign Begins:
   ISRO launched a month-long campaign on atmospheric aerosols. During the campaign, vehicle equipped with sophisticated instruments traveled 6,000 km in south India to measure physical, chemical and optical properties of aerosols and trace gases along the road corridors. The campaign, carried out as part of Geospher-Biosphere Programme, was to obtain a better insight of properties and composition of aerosols and their distribution across various latitudes.
    
3. June 21-25, 2004: India-US Conference:
   The India-US Conference on Space Science, Applications and Commerce was held at Bangalore during with the objective of strengthening and expanding the cooperation between India and the US in the field of space science and applications as well as related commercial activity. About 550 delegates including 200 from US attended the conference, which culminated with the issue of a Vision Statement for enhanced cooperation between the two countries.
    
4. August 19, 2004: Airdrop Test of Space-capsule Recovery Experiment:
   The airdrop test of the Space-capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE) was successfully conducted on from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. SRE is intended for demonstrating the technology to recover a 500 kg orbiting space capsule that will be launched by Polar Satellite Launch vehicle (PSLV) during the second half of 2005.
    
5. September 20, 2004: GSLV Launches EDUSAT:
   In its first operational flight, India's Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, GSLV, successfully launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, the country's first thematic satellite dedicated to educational services, the 1950 kg EDUSAT, into a precise predetermined Geo-synchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). EDUSAT has since been positioned in its designated orbital slot at 74 degree East longitude in the 36,000 km high Geo-synchronous orbit.
    
6. October 18, 2004: Satellite-based Village Resource Centres Inaugurated:
   The Prime Minister inaugurated the first cluster of four Village Resource Centres (VRC) in Tamil Nadu, established jointly by ISRO and the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation. VRC is a totally interactive VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) based network to provide space enabled information and a variety of services like tele-education, telemedicine, online decision support, interactive farmers' advisory services, tele-fishery, e-governance services, weather services and water management. VRCs will also provide connectivity to speciality hospitals thus bringing the services of expert doctors closer to the villages.
    
7. November 12, 2004: MOU Signed for Indo-French Satellite Mission--Megha-Tropiques:
   ISRO signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the French Space agency, CNES, for the development and launch of an atmospheric satellite, Megha-Tropiques for investigating the contribution of the water cycle in the tropical atmosphere to climate dynamics. India will build the Megha-Tropiques spacecraft and will also launch the satellite using its PSLV as well as maintain the satellite in orbit, receive, process and distribute the scientific data from the satellite. While two of the scientific instruments for the satellite will be designed and built by CNES, the third will be jointly built by ISRO and CNES. The launch is planned by 2008-2009.
    
8. November 22-26, 2004: International Lunar Conference:
   The Sixth International Lunar Conference was organised at Udaipur to discuss current results on lunar science, including questions regarding its origin and resources, the future prospects of creating a lunar base for planetary exploration and possible human settlement. India's Chandrayaan-1 mission slated for 2007-08 drew international attention during the conference.