Indian Space and Research Organization, ISRO is a space agency which was envisioned and founded by DR. Vikram Sarabhai in the year 1969 and is headquartered at Bengaluru, India. ISRO [formerly known as Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR)], launched its first spacecraft called ‘Aryabhata’ using a Soviet launcher in the year 1975. A major landmark was the development of the first launch vehicle SLV-3 with the capability to place 40 kg in low earth orbit (LEO), which led to the first successful flight in 1980. But how many actually know about all this?
PSLV-C11/ Chandrayaan-1 (ISRO)
ISRO vs NASA
We seem to be the most interested in the entire world to know what exactly is NASA doing and what its progress rate is. But how many of us take interests in knowing what country is doing and what efforts are organizations like ISRO putting in to make the nation proud. You might be surprised to know that ISRO’s expenditure in the last 40 years equals to the half of NASA’s in a single year, yet we have not only reached the moon and back but we are the only nation in the world to have had the first successful mission of reaching the mars, whereas NASA got there in the 12th attempt.
New feathers for ISRO
India doesn’t even buy the stuff needed for accomplishing these extraordinary missions, rather we make them here. We even asked for help from the US to help us in methodologies and engineering but they refused, but we still didn’t give up and had our way. Also defying the stereotypical norms of the society and the proportional link we Indians of an IIT equals to a good job you will be perplexed to know that only 2% of the engineers working in this organization are from the IIT’s and the NIIT’S.
So do you think it’s a small organization? Well actually no. We had our last year’s turnover of approximately 14 billion dollars which is commendable. Also, many people don’t know about ‘Antrix’. It is the corporate arm of ISRO. It deals with the commercialization of the space products, consultancy, and technology developed by ISRO. And who are on the board of directors for is functioning? Well, it’s actually the India’s biggest business tycoons Ratan Tata and Jamshyd Godrej. Besides all this, India’s latest achievement in the field of aeronautics was PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. PSLV has been successfully working for the past 20 years and is under development for future launches.
Even though India is doing so much and excelling in different fields, yet we aren’t given the due respect and the recognition. ISRO is India’s golden bird. It is doing the best it can in the most effective and efficient way. Yet when it comes to being aware, half the Indians still seem to be oblivious to facts.
References:
https://www.isro.gov.in/
Image Credits: https://swarajyamag.com/insta/with-eyes-on-commercial-satellite-launch-market-isro-to-conduct-a-launch-exclusively-for-foreign-satellites
