When India’s pride skyrocketed 50 years ago

Exactly 50 years ago it was a proud moment for the entire country when ISRO launched its first indigenous sounding rocket from Thumba in Thiruvananthapuram on November 20, 1967. It was a big step for the Indian space programme when Rohini 75 (RH-75) flew into space. This rocket was only about a metre long and weighed about 32 kg. The number ‘75’ referred to the rocket’s diameter in millimetres. The rocket reached 7-km height after its launch but was too small to carry a payload.

RH-75 was followed by the launch of RH-100 and RH-125 sounding rockets. As per ISRO’s website, “Sounding rockets are one or two-stage solid propellant rockets used for probing the upper atmospheric regions and for space research. They also serve as easily affordable platforms to test or prove prototypes of new components or subsystems intended for use in launch vehicles and satellites.”

The development of an indigenous sounding rocket boosted the confidence of young engineers working for India’s space programme. Subsequently, plans were afoot to develop a spectrum of sounding rockets in India to cover various altitudes and payloads. This whole project came under the name Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) programme.

Writing about the RSR programme, Dr R Arvamudan (Ex-director of Satish Dhawan Space Center) in his book ISRO: A personal history, mentions, “Developing a small sounding rocket might seem quite simple as compared to the large boosters and satellite launch vehicles, but our experience was quite the opposite. The reason was the smallness of these rockets which made them fly with very high acceleration which created all sorts of problems. The other major concern was the propellant, it had to burn properly without getting extinguished or becoming unstable”.

It was under these difficult conditions that the Indian Space Program grew and grew for the better. While this was happening domestically, India’s stature kept rising as the latest entrant into the elite circle of nations which had their own space programmes. 

The idea of having a space programme in a resource-scarce country like India was primarily to serve the people of the country.

India was never in a space race like the superpowers — the USA and the USSR in the sixties. ISRO’s efforts were geared towards the development of the nation and the peaceful use of Outer Space. India signed the Outer Space Treaty in 1967 which is formally known as the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. This treaty forms the basis of international space law.

The sounding rocket programme was the bedrock on which the edifice of launch vehicle technology in ISRO could be built. For the last five decades, ISRO has emphasised on ‘Make in India’ and the Rohini Sounding Rockets were a prime example of that. 

Due to the sheer dedication of generations of ISRO scientists, the Indian space Programme continues to take great strides forward. 

The author is a junior research fellow at School of International Studies, JNU