Transported on a bicycle, launched from a church: The fascinating story of India's first rocket launch
From being transported on a bicycle to being launched from a church, here's how the India's first rocket reached the stars in 1963.
It was 53 years before, on November 21 1963, that a small rocket took off from Thumba on the edges of Thiruvananthapuram, reporting the introduction of the advanced space age in India. The tired palm-bordered town soon came to be known as Thumba Equatorial Rocket Dispatch Station (TERLS) and later became Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC).
Till 1963, the dark town of Thumba would not have justified another glance. A quintessential Kerala fishing villa with covered cabins, coconut forests and peaceful sea, it was a far-fetched setting for a rocket dispatch station. Nonetheless, it had something that got the interest of Dr Vikram Sarabhai, the father of India's space program. A small church devoted to St Mary Magdalene that was situated on the Earth's magnetic equator.
Sounding rockets, or the first rockets conveyed by any space program, test and study these electrons for research in the fields of physics, astronomy, and meteorology. These rockets are the baby steps taken before the establishment of a full-fledged space programme and Dr Sarabhai felt that Thumba was the best place to launch them. In fact, Thumba’s location at 8°32’34” N and 76°51’32” E is ideal for low-altitude, upper atmosphere and ionosphere studies.
So, one fine day, Dr Sarabhai and his fellow researchers (including Dr APJ Abdul Kalam) went to Thumba to talk with the then-bishop of Trivandrum who lived in the house adjacent to the church. They were keen on obtaining the church and the nearby land for their first rocket launch. Rather than offering them a definite response, Reverend Peter Bernard Pereira requested that they go to the Sunday mass that week, where he would put the inquiry to the parishioners.
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| The Mary Magdalene Church in Thumba |
