What is the reason for HAL's failure, when the ISRO has achieved remarkable success in space technology?
The success of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) under limited budget is due to thousands of dedicated scientists. ISRO was led by legendary leaders like Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan, U R Rao, APJ Abdul Kalam. The moon mission was initiated by Dr Kasturirangan in 1995. It is the organization that has excellent work culture. Most scientists have humble backgrounds and not from IITs and NITs. The recruitment is mainly from ordinary engineering colleges in south India where ISRO centres are located and hence a majority employee are south Indians. They recruit uncut diamonds and make gems. Never got into any scandal or controversy except Nambi Narayan cryogenic enegine case which was a fallout of two Kerala leaders power struggle, AK Antony and K Karunakaran. India is blessed with many dedicated scientists. This is the reason ISRO succeeded despite small budget. Pakistan’s space agency SUPARCO established in 1962 but started only in 1964. India’s space agency INCOSPAR established under Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in 1962, a year after SUPARCO came up. Eminent scientist Dr. Meghnad Saha who was chairman of planning commission took keen interest in nuclear physics plans and helped build BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Center) and DAE in in 1954 under Dr. Homi Bhabha leadership. Dr. Saha recommended that since these organisations are highly technical, they will not be headed by IAS people and since INCOSPAR (later became ISRO) was under DAE, it was always headed by scientists.
The leadership
PM Nehru’s role was only motivational and his closeness with Dr. Vikram Sarabhai made ISRO a premium research organisation. Dr. Sarabhai was close to Rabindranath Tagore also and Tagore recommended his post-graduation study in Cambridge. Despite good connections with government, INSCOPAR/ISRO suffered fun crunch and in 1960s, they were mostly blasting sounding rockets. Finally in 1969, it was renamed to ISRO.
The motivation
India's first rocket launch became possible quite literally after divine intervention. The land which now houses India's famed Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, from where, in 1963, Indians watched their first rocket head for space, was originally a Catholic church. In the early 1960s, Dr Vikram Sarabhai selected a small fishing village called Thumba in Trivandrum as the ideal location for a rocket launching station. And the spot he had zeroed in as a potential launch site housed a church.
St Mary Magdalene Church was located on Earth's magnetic equator, an imaginary line where the Equatorial Electrojet (a narrow ribbon of current flowing eastward in the day time equatorial region of the ionosphere) exists. This had stirred Dr Sarabhai's interest. So, one fine day, Dr Sarabhai and his colleagues went to speak to the then-bishop of Trivandrum, Rev Dr Peter Bernard Pereira, about acquiring the church. That must have been an awkward conversation. It also culminated in a cliff-hanger. Instead of giving them a definite answer, Reverend Pereira, asked the scientist to attend the Sunday mass that week.
Among this group of scientists was Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, and he wrote about this particular Sunday mass in his book "Ignited Minds: Unleashing The Power Within India". This is what he writes the bishop told the congregation: "My children, I have a famous scientist with me who wants our church and the place I live for the work of space science and research. Science seeks truth that enriches human life. The higher level of religion is spirituality. The spiritual preachers seek the help of the Almighty to bring peace to human minds. In short, what Vikram is doing and what I am doing are the same - both science and spirituality seek the Almighty's blessings for human prosperity in mind and body. Children, can we give them God's abode for a scientific mission?"
Kalam then writes that there "was silence for a while followed by a hearty 'Amen' from the congregation, which made the whole church reverberate." The necessary permissions were fetched, due paperwork done, and the villagers shifted to a different village that had its own brand new church. And on the garden before St Mary Magdalene Church, our first rocket launcher was built.
In his book, Kalam wrote that the prayer room became his first laboratory, and the bishop's room his drawing office. It is said that the church's cattle shed was converted into the laboratory where the scientists worked. The main church building, of which nothing seems to have been demolished, went on to become a space museum. In time to come, TERLS became Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). In fact, the roots of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), in a way, lie in this church too.
India's proud history of rocket science took its baby steps on a bicycle and a bullock cart. In order to be brought to the launch pad, parts of the NASA-made rocket, Nike-Apache, were carried on these vehicles. After much labour, on the eve of November, 21, 1963, Nike-Apache blasted off into space from the garden facing St Mary Magdalene Church. The building, which still bears a church-like beauty of towers and bells, now houses a space museum, where you cannot walk in with your shoes on. Once you're inside, you don't encounter an altar. Instead, you are faced with a fascinating array of rockets, satellites, and details of how the church became a space centre.
Initial baby steps in 1960s
In 1970s, Department of Space (DOS) was made (1972) and ISRO sifted under DOS. Small satellites were made like Aryabhatta and lifted to space from USSR in April 1972. Next satellite was Bhaskara-1. But these satellites were early experiments, small and not that cutting edge technology. The reason for lift-off from USSR was obviously good political relation with India, especially after 1971 Bangladesh war help.
1980s saw ISRO flying in space. One of the major reason was Prof. UR Rao took charge of ISRO who had research experience in USA. Launching of bigger and better satellites for various purposes became frequent. Some notable satellites launched by the ISRO include the INSAT (INSAT IA, IB, 2A, 2B etc.) series, which serve communication, broadcasting, and weather forecasting needs, and the Cartosat series, designed for earth observation and mapping. Many small town and villages got connected broadcasting network of Doordarshan using ISRO satellites. Daily news flashed ISRO INSAT 1B cloud images on national TV. Common people now started to understand the benefits of space technology. These bigger geo stationary satellites were launched from French Guyana using Ariane heavy rockets.
1990s saw the need of heavy duly geo stationary satellites rockets and need to develop cryogenic upper stage rocket technology. This is where Russia after break-up of USSR came under USA pressure and refused the technology transfer as per agreement. Also Nambi Narayan controversy delayed heavy (GSLV) rocket development. Smaller PSLV rocked development progressed well.
Mars (Mangalyaan), moon (Chandrayaan) and space (Gaganyaan) missions started in 21st century.
What has Modi or Nehru got to do with ISRO besides budget allocation and motivation? Both have motivated ISRO. Anything and everything happen only if the people at power accept, approve and organize a setup to do this. The real reason for ISRO success is that it is led by technocrats and not the ‘sarkari’ mostly corrupt IAS class. But due to intense political rivalry, congress chamchas are macking mockery of themselves by bringing Nehru at every discussion 6 decades after his death.
On 23 August 2023, when Chandrayaan-3 Lander successfully landed on the south pole of moon, congressi chamchas instead of rejoicing as Indians, praised Nehru and mocked Modi.
Picture source: Google / Respective rightful owner
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