Centre for Space Sciences inaugurated at Jammu Central University

The Centre for Space Science has been inaugurated at the Jammu Central University. The first course will have an intake of 60 students and will begin from this year only.

On Saturday, Union Minister Jitendra Singh inaugurated the Satish Dhawan Centre for Space Science at the Central University of Jammu. During the inauguration, he mentioned that the first course with an intake capacity of 60 students will start from this year itself.

“We will start the first course this year and the intake capacity will be 60 seats. The selection criteria will be IIT-JEE so that there will be no allegations of discrimination or anything else,” he said, as reported by PTI.

In October 2018, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Central University of Jammu to set up a centre with facilities for geospatial data analysis, which will help in sustainable use of natural resources and plan land-use patterns.

The space centre has ground-based observations for atmospheric studies, a research lab for astrophysics, atmospheric sensing, and a glacier studies lab for better use of large quantities of water stored in the form of seasonal snow, ice, and glaciers in the rivers of northern India.

During the inauguration ceremony, Mr Singh said that at his suggestion, the Centre was named the former chairman of ISRO as he was a resident of Jammu and Kashmir and a “real pride” of the Dogra community.

“He (Satish Dhawan) went to Bangalore (now Bengaluru) from here and it was because of him that the headquarters of space research was set up in Bangalore and not Delhi as he was working on several important projects,” Singh said.

(With PTI inputs)