Modest start to big strides: India’s space programme turns 60 Premium

India's space programme began 60 years ago with the launch of a Nike Apache rocket from Thumba. Since then, ISRO has achieved many successes, including launching satellites for various applications and for deep-space science missions.

Sixty years ago, the Indian space programme was born.

On the evening of November 21, 1963, a 715-kg Nike Apache rocket soared from a small launch pad on the beach-head at Thumba, a fishing village on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram. It rose 208 km into the sky and released a sodium vapour payload, painting the twilight sky with a big, bright orange cloud.

The Kerala Assembly was in session at the time in Thiruvananthapuram. Its members ran out to see the spectacle in the sky. They were entranced. The sight fascinated thousands of people in the area. Some of them later said that the launch hooked them to rocketry and motivated them to join the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The Nike Apache launch was an international effort under the United Nations. The rocket came from the U.S., the sodium vapour payload from France, and the range clearance from an MI-4 helicopter from the then Soviet Union. The rocket and payload engineers were Indians.

The rocket had been mated with the payload in St. Mary Magdalene Church, Thumba, which had been taken over by the national government. The parish priest’s house served as the mission control centre.

Vikram Sarabhai was present during the launch, as were E.V. Chitnis, P.D. Bhavsar, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and the French payload specialist Jacques Blamont, among others.

India launched its first truly indigenous rocket on February 22, 1969. Vasant Gowariker, who later became the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thumba, said it was “a pencil-sized rocket”. He told this writer in 1980 that it carried a few kilograms of solid propellants and rose a few kilometres into the air.