Came a long way and did it- Our way

“From then till now, we have come a long way and we did it- our way.” They have given this message to the world today and how….

Born in 1962 and later renamed in 1969 as ISRO, came into existence on the land of India whom others called third world country at that time. ISRO was born out of a dream dreamt by an Indian physicist Vikram Sarabhai, with sole vision to develop and mobilize India’s space technology to support India’s development. ISRO began its journey with a small group of Indian scientists who wanted to pursue research in the field of space and explore planets.

When India was trying to stand on its two feet after getting freedom from the colonial rule in 1947, ISRO did not have the luxury that the first world developed countries had at their back and call. Even the simplest activity of transporting parts of their first missions was done on a bicycle. Barely any funding was available for the team in those days but still managed and never stop dreaming big. Even the land for ISRO was acquired from a local church and villagers were relocated to another village to prepare for launch. India launched the very first rocket in 1963 just over a one year since their birth though it was not made in India. In 1975 launched their first own satellite Aryabhata, though it was launched from India’s friendly nation the then Soviet Union’s launching pad, it was designed and fabricated fully by Indian scientists. Followed next was the first Indian-made rocket launch vehicle and in 1980, launched the Rohini satellite, making India the sixth nation in the world who independently placed an indigenously made vehicle in space. In 1981, had to make do with a makeshift facility mounted on a bullock-cart to test the electro-magnetic cleanliness experiment before launching their first communication satellite. In 1984, an Indian astronaut Rakesh Sharma, joined the manned mission between India and Russia. Since 1997, their workhorse- the Polar satellite launch vehicle, has now launched numerous kinds of satellites including other countries too. In 1999, first time launched not one but three satellite at a time. In 2001, first time a geo-synchronous satellite was launched. In 2007, first experiment was done in for recovering a launch placing on the path of reusable launch vehicles. In 2008, first time place a satellite in moon’s orbit and made the discovery of water’s existence on Moon. In 2014, their first mission to Mars called Mangalyaan was successfully executed in first attempt and ever since receiving crucial data even today. India also holds record of launching largest number of satellites launched on a single flight by any other country. ISRI started international customer satellite launching and have launched 389 foreign satellites out of 424 till 2019 and still counting. In 2019 made the first attempt to land on moon. Though the last leg of landing failed, another attempt in 2023 was made and with precision soft landed, their lander named Vikram with rover named Pragyan in its belly. Not only the lander landed successfully at the precise spot selected by ISRO, but the rover too successfully moved out of the lander and had a moon walk on the surface of the Moon, imprinting ISRO and India’s emblem forever. This latest mission called Chandrayan-3 cost India less than cost of a Hollywood space film. With this achievement India became the first to land on south pole of Moon and fourth to land on Moon. Within a month after success of Moon mission, they launched their Aditya-L1 mission to Sun successfully too becoming the first Asian country to achieve this goal.

People derided India yesterday, deride even today and shall continue to deride in future too. But to dream one does not need to be rich or a developed country, what one needs are guts to dream and that’s what ISRO is all about. ISRO inspired not only Indians but citizens of the world too. Indians have shown the world how things are done- The Indian way.

This is just a trailer; movie is yet to be seen. India has miles to go and never ever sleep.