CHAPTER XXX

SPACE PROGRAMME

T
he first successful satellite launch by the
Soviets in 1957 ushered in the space era. At
initial stages, critical military applications,
national prestige and enabling space
exploration were the main drives for the development
of satellites and satellite launch vehicles. In later years,
many civilian applications of satellites have been
identified and extensively developed. Dominated by
satellite communications, these civilian applications
have now become the main motivating forces for the
space programmes pursued by many other countries.
As for the future, the new frontiers of space research
promise the establishing of
space colonies and inter-
planetary travel,
increasing our understanding
and
T HE INDIAN SPACE
of the evolution of the PROGRAMME IS ONE
universe. In the field of space THE MOST SUCCESSFUL
applications, space-borne ob-
AND COST-EFFECTIVE
servations are looked upon as
a very powerful and unique ENDEAVOURS GIVING
technique for a variety of appli- RANGE OF BENEFITS TO
cations ranging from weather
THE NATION AND SOCIETY.
forecasting to generation of an
information base relevant to
sustainable development of natural resources.
India is amongst the first few countries to realize
the potential of space technology and its applications.
The pioneer of the Indian space programme, Vikram
Sarabhai, under whose chairmanship, the Indian
National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR)
was formed in 1962, had cherished a dream that India
should be second to none in the application of advanced
technologies, like space, to solve the real problems of
humanity and society. In 1972, the Indian Space
Programme was formally organized with the setting
up of the Space Commission and the government
funding it through the Department of Space.
SATELLITE COMMUNICATION
T he potential of space technology for mass educa-
tion, especially in terms of immediacy, potency,
visual power and outreach was recognized in the early
70s. Keeping in view the larger aspects of education,
especially rural education, India launched the Satellite
Instructional Television Exper-
iment (SITE) in 1975-76 to tele-
cast a series of educational TV
programmes on health, family
OF planning, agriculture, and
adult education covering 2,500
Indian villages via the US satel-
lite, ATS-6. It was the largest
WIDE sociological experiment ever
carried out in the world. The
Satellite Telecommunication
Experiment Project (STEP),
conducted using Franco-
German SYMPHONIE satellite during 1977-79, was
another major demonstration of long-distance satellite
telecommunication application of space. India also
launched its own APPLE (Ariane Passenger Payload
Experiment), an experimental communication satel-
lite, in June 1981, using the opportunity offered by the
European Space Agency (ESA) to put this satellite on
board the third developmental flight of Ariane.

304 PURSUIT AND PROMOTION OF SCIENCE

 A major development took place during 1980s,
through the establishment of the operational Indian
National Satellite (INSAT) system, for providing
indigenous services in telecommunications, TV
broadcasting, meteorology and disaster warning.
The INSAT series, commissioned in 1983, has today
become one of the largest domestic satellite systems
in the world, comprising five satellites. The last
satellite of the second generation INSAT-2 series,
INSAT-2E, was launched from Kourou, French
Guyana, on April 3, 1999.
Work on INSAT-3 series of satellites has already
begun. Five satellites in the INSAT-3 series have
been planned and the first satellite, INSAT-3B, has
already been launched in March 2000. The INSAT
system has a unique design, combining tele-
communication, television/radio broadcasting and
meteorological services upon a single platform. The
involvement of various users like the Department
of Telecommunication, Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting, Indian Meteorological Department,
has enabled proper tuning of INSAT system
towards identified national developmental needs.
The demonstrated space applications in SITE and
STEP of the 1970 were transformed to practical and
operational systems through INSAT. Today, INSAT
links about 450 earth stations set up in the country,
including those located in inaccessible regions and off-
shore islands. Besides, there are about 8,500 Very Small
Aperture Terminals (VSATs), including those installed
by the National Informatics Centre and private
networks, catering to corporate houses.
Television in India now reaches about 85 per
cent of its population through over 1,000 TV
transmitters linked via INSAT. Educational
programmes of over 100 hours are telecast every
week. The INSAT system has become a powerful
tool for training and developmental education and
is used by various agencies to provide continuing
education, conduct in-situ training for industrial
employees, social welfare personnel and training of
Panchayat Raj (village governance) workers.
India continues to emphasize the use of INSAT
for rural upliftment. A pilot project that started in
November 1996, in a tribal district of Madhya
Pradesh in Central India is now in progress to
educate the indigenous community on various
aspects of health, hygiene, family planning and
women's rights. This project is being expanded to
cover more villages and is expected to lead to a
unique space-based system that will be dedicated
to the development of rural society. Similar projects
are being initiated in several other states.
WEATHER FORECAST AND
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
I ndian agriculture predominantly depends on the
monsoons and precise forecasting of weather
assumes a great significance. Large populations liv-
ing on the eastern and western coasts face devastat-
ing cyclones very frequently. Thus, precise weather
forecasting and warnings on impending disasters is
PURSUIT AND PROMOTION OF SCIENCE 305
very important. This is the reason why India includ-
ed meteorological instruments on its INSAT, making
it a unique multipurpose satellite system. The cloud
imageries collected by the satellites and over a hun-
dred meteorological data-collection platforms
installed all over the country that relay local weather
parameters via the INSAT, have contributed greatly
to improved meteorological services. The twin capa-
bility of communication and meteorological imaging
of INSAT is effectively used not only to predict
cyclone tracks but also to issue warnings to the pop-
ulation likely to be affected. About 250 disaster warn-
ing receivers have been installed for this purpose
along the cyclone-prone east and west-coast of India.
Several thousand lives have been saved by the INSAT
disaster warning system through timely evacuation.
MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
ndia has 3.3 million km2 land area with varied phys-
I ical features ranging from the snow-covered
Himalayas in the north to tropical forests in the south
and from regions in the east receiving highest rainfall
306 PURSUIT AND PROMOTION OF SCIENCE
in the world to the arid deserts of Rajasthan in the
west. India is also blessed with a vast natural wealth,
yet to be exploited fully. A coastal belt of 7,500 km has
a store of rich aquatic resources. What better way can
be there to monitor and manage the natural resources
for a large country like India than through the use of
the powerful tool of space-based observation systems?
India not only demonstrated the potential of space-
based remote sensing in the 1970s using data received
from the US satellite, LANDSAT, but also went on to
build its own experimental satellites, BHASKARA-1
and BHASKARA-2, which were launched in June 1979
and November 1981, respectively. India became one of
the few countries to develop its own operational
Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-1A) in March
1988, and now has the largest constellation of five
remote sensing satellites, IRS-1B, IRS-1C, IRS-1D, IRS-
P3, and IRS-P4 in operation. Of these, IRS-1C and IRS-
1D, are the best civilian remote sensing satellites in the
world. IRS-P4 (OCEANSAT-1) launched in May 1999
is used for monitoring ocean resources and for under-
standing the atmosphere over the oceans. Two more
satellites, IRS-P5 for cartographic applications and INDIGENOUS LAUNCH VEHICLE PROGRAMME
IRS-P6 for resources survey, are planned for launch in
the coming years.
The IRS system has brought in a sea change in
I ndia realised quite early that sustaining the space
programme in the long run would depend on
indigenous technological capabilities. Keeping this
India's resources monitoring and management in view, besides building satellites, India embarked
techniques. Data from IRS is used for estimation of on satellite launch vehicle development in the early
acreage and yield of important crops, like wheat, rice, 1970s. The first experimental launch vehicle SLV-3
sorghum, oil seeds and sugarcane, and other was carried out in 1980. An augmented version of
applications such as forest survey, forecasting drought this vehicle, ASLV, was launched successfully in
conditions, flood mapping and demarcation of flood- 1992. India has now acquired a significant capabili-
risk zones, land use and land cover mapping for agro- ty in the launch vehicle area with the successful
climatic planning, waste land mapping and their development of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
classification for possible reclamation, preparation of (PSLV), capable of putting a 1,000-1200 kg class satel-
hydro-geomorphological maps for locating sites for lite into 820 km polar sun-synchronous orbit. PSLV is
borewells, monitoring and development of
irrigation command areas, snow-cover and snow-
melt run-off estimation of Himalayan rivers for
optimal use of water. Data from IRS are also used
in urban planning, alignment of roads and
pipelines, detection of underground fires in
collieries, marine resources survey, mineral
prospecting, and so on. A unique application of
data from IRS is in the Integrated Mission for
Sustainable Development (IMSD) which is aimed
at the generating locale-specific prescriptions for
development at micro-level. The impact of IMSD
is already being felt in areas where prescriptions
generated have been actually implemented. The
figure on the right shows various aspects of IRS
satellite system, data and its applications related
to sustainable development.

PURSUIT AND PROMOTION OF SCIENCE 307

 being offered to launch the satellites of other coun-
tries and has launched two small satellites, one for
Korea and another for Germany along with India's
IRS-P4 in May 1999. More space agencies are
expected to use PSLV for placing their satellites in
orbit; a European satellite PROBA is scheduled for
launch as a piggy back on board next PSLV.
The Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch
Vehicle (GSLV-D1) had its maiden successful flight
on April 18, 2001, from Sriharikota injecting the
G-SAT 1 satellite into ~180 x 32,155 km geo-
synchronous transfer orbit (GTO). The adjoining
figure shows different types of sounding rockets
and satellite launch vehicles developed and
launched by ISRO.

SPACE SCIENCE RESEARCH

T he initial thrust for Indian space programme

came from the requirement of scientists to
carry out investigations in aeronomy as well as in
astronomy by conducting space-based experi-
ments. Apart from developing technologies for
sounding rockets and balloon borne instrumenta-
tion, ISRO has established complementary ground
-based facilities, particularly for scientists from uni-
versities and academic institutions. The major
areas of investigation in space sciences have been
high-energy cosmic ray variability using neutron/
meson/Cerenkov monitors, equatorial electrojet
and spread-F ionization irregularities, ozone,
aerosol and cloud phenomena, middle atmospher-
ic radiation, dynamics and electrodynamics, solar
physics, IR astronomy, neutron star and black hole
astrophysics, planetary science and origin/evolu-
tion of life and so on. Also, India has recently
launched scientific payloads to study celestial
gamma ray bursts and X-ray sources. For conduct-
ing atmospheric research with high resolution, the
Mesosphere, Stratosphere and Troposphere (MST)
radar has been established at Gadanki near
Tirupati. The ISRO has enabled participation of
scientists in major international science campaigns,
like monsoon experiment (MONEX), middle

308 PURSUIT AND PROMOTION OF SCIENCE

atmospheric programme (MAP), ISTEP, and
INDOEX by providing the financial, technological
and other assistance.
Based on the interest shown by a large number
of space scientists in India and their suggestions,
several new proposals and activities have been
initiated by ISRO. Some of the major ones include
(a) ASTROSAT: a multi-wavelength dedicated
satellite mission for high-energy astronomy. The
satellite is likely to carry soft and hard X-ray
detectors and imaging payloads, all sky X-ray
monitors and a UV/optical telescope system, (b)
SOXS: The Solar X-ray Spectrometers payload
development on board GSAT, for studying solar
activity and flaring phenomena, (c) CRABEX: The
Coherent Radio Beacon Experiment payload on
board geo-stationary satellite and a ground-based
chain of receivers located at various universities and
research institutions for developing ionospheric
tomography or 3-D models of ionization and their
structure, (d) Planetary exploration/science:
competence building in planetary science studies
and also development of sensors for planetary
probes/missions to the moon or to asteroids or
nearby planets, and (e) Microgravity science/
exploration programme: National workshops and
meetings have been held to define novel scientific
experiments for such a programme and proposals
selected with potentials for space-borne
experiments either in a balloon drop system or in a
space recovery capsule.
INDUSTRY PARTICIPATION
T he national investment to sustain the space pro-
gramme not only provides a significant and
profitable domestic market for Indian industry, but
also helps it to acquire technological muscle to
enlarge its capability for increasing the value-added
component in other areas and eventually capture a
part of the growing international market in high
technology applications. Hence India has encour-
aged active participation of industry in its space pro-
gramme which in turn has led the industry to
upgrade its own technological skills. Also, as a spin-
off, a large number of technologies developed under
the space programme have been transferred to
industries for commercial applications. A number of
major industries have now set up exclusive fabrica-
tion divisions to meet the demands of the national
space programme. A large number of systems
required on ground, such as remote sensing data
processing equipment, communication earth stations
and terminal equipment, have opened up a fairly
large market for industry.
HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
A constant induction of human power to carry on
the task of continuous research and develop-
ment is another vital element that sustains the space
programme. Towards this end, Indian space
programme has established a strong interface with
academia, for example, the scheme of Research
Sponsored by ISRO (RESPOND) under which grants
for undertaking research projects on subjects
relevant to the space programme are financially
supported at universities, academic and research
institutions by ISRO.
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
I nternational cooperation has been pursued from
the inception of the Indian space programme. The
establishment of the Equatorial Rocket Launching
Station at Thumba, conduct of space application
demonstrations, like SITE and STEP, and launches of
experimental satellites, like Aryabhata, Bhaskara and
APPLE, have involved cooperation with other coun-
tries including USA, the former Soviet Union,
France, Germany and international space agencies.
India has cooperative agreements with several coun-
tries and has set up two Local User Terminals (LUT)
and the Mission Control Centre (MCC) as part of the
COSPAS-SARSAT network, under the international
satellite-aided search and rescue programme. India
also shares its experience in space applications with
other developing countries by training their person-
nel under a programme called SHARES. The UN-
PURSUIT AND PROMOTION OF SCIENCE 309
affiliated Centre for Space Science and Technology
Education in Asia and the Pacific has begun its pro-
gramme at the postgraduate level in remote sensing
and geographical information system, satellite com-
munications, meteorology and space science for the
benefit of persons from Asia and the Pacific region.
India hosted the second UN-ESCAP Ministerial
Conference on space applications in November 1999.

COMMERCIAL ACCRUALS

E ven though IndiaÕs space programme is primari-

ly directed towards establishment of space sys-
tems for national development, the capability that is
built in the process has started yielding economic
benefits. The setting up of an exclusive commercial
front, the ANTRIX Corporation, under Department
of Space, in 1992, for marketing hardware and ser-
vices has acted as a catalyst in this endeavour.
Important commercial agreements include world-
wide marketing of remote sensing data from Indian
satellites, lease of satellite capacity, launch of small
satellites on board PSLV, supply of satellite hard-
ware, providing tracking support for satellites using
Indian ground stations and training of personnel.
SPACE EXPENDITURE
$ 2,400 million so far, India has built 29 satellites,
developed three types of launch vehicles, conducted
thirteen flights so far, established an elaborate
infrastructure to design, build and test
communication and remote sensing satellites, their
launch, and their in-orbit management as well as
their data processing and application, and has
developed a strong human power base for
undertaking frontline R&D in space. The Indian
space programme has been one of the most

I ndia has now established a well-integrated space

programme with end-to-end capabilities for the
development and application of space technology
for national benefit. The execution of the programme
has been well orchestrated -- starting with demon-
stration of end-use through large-scale experiments,
developing linkages with users, passing through
experimental and developmental phases of system
development and finally, establishing state-of-the-art
operational systems.
With a modest overall expenditure of about US
successful and cost-effective endeavours, especially,
when one looks at the wide range of benefits that
have accrued to the nation and society.
As India enters the new millennium, it is
necessary to sustain this programme by
continuously tuning it to the fast changing
requirements and updating the technology that goes
into the making of these sophisticated systems. The
challenges continue to grow but that is what attracts
and sustains the interest of personnel working in
the space programme.

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