Dr Dinesh C. Sharma uses two broad themes in his book—the ISRO story and Indians in space, with special focus on astronauts Rakesh Sharma, Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams
India라이브 바카라 space odyssey, spanning just over six decades is nothing short of a low budget, superhit classic enterprise. It has attracted awe from global space majors and is providing rich fodder for Bollywood movies. Reflecting this in a sense is the popularity of R Madhavan라이브 바카라 ‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect' and the ‘Rocket Boys’, chronicling the lives of Dr Vikram Sarabhai and Dr Homi Bhabha, which have been streamed on OTT platforms.
Largely spearheaded by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the India space story has all the ingredients to motivate the youth and fascinate the layman. It is a saga of innovation, frugal methods, diverse leadership, applications of technologies that have impacted the country라이브 바카라 development. And the programme is almost entirely homegrown. The achievements starting from building satellites, launch vehicles and launch pads, to reaching the Moon and Mars with probes are by now legendary.
The country is on the verge of sending humans to space through the Gaganyaan Project. It is already in the exclusive club of space powers that include the US, Russia, China, France, etc. Capturing the many aspects of this spectacular journey is a new book titled ‘Space-The India Story’, by noted author and science communicator, Dr Dinesh C. Sharma. The writer uses two broad themes—the ISRO story and Indians in space, with special focus on astronauts Rakesh Sharma, Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.
The book was smartly launched to coincide with the return of astronaut Sunita Williams to the Earth after her nine-day trip to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2024 turned into an agonising and ultimate endurance test, stretching to over nine months. Dinesh Sharma delves extensively into the life and phenomenal achievements of the astronaut in a separate chapter titled 'Marathoner in Space'. There have been quite a few books and works that have either documented India라이브 바카라 space successes or penned by prominent scientists of ISRO in their autobiographies.
The difference Dinesh Sharma brings to the table in his 240-page tome is an engaging style interwoven with lots of research from archival material and his personal touch as a science reporter. One critical aspect that does not get adequate coverage in the book is the important role that the public sector, private industry, academia, and in recent times the startups, have played right from the beginning in the impressive trajectory of growth of Indian Space technology.
The narrative begins full throttle from the early days of rocketry at Thumba, a tiny fishing village close to the VSSC, after the initiatives triggered by participation of Indian scientists in the International Geophysical Year (IGY-1957-58) and the formation of the INCOSPAR in 1962. Thereafter, the author throws light on the exciting phases consisting of firing of rockets, building of small satellites, launch vehicles under the leadership of Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan to U.R. Rao in the first and most challenging phase till around 2000. The PSLVs, ASLV and GSLV were developed while the applications part from the Aryabhatta satellite to the SITE programme gathered pace. The programme took a giant leap in 2008, when the ISRO, under the chairmanship of Madhavan Nair, successfully sent the Chandrayaan-1 to the Moon. The Moon probe made a remarkable discovery of water molecules on the lunar surface. This was followed up by the Mars Orbiter Mission in 2014 and finally, the historic landing on the southern side of the Moon by Chandrayaan-3 in August-Sept 2023.
The author has captured these exciting missions in fine detail, complete with the incidents and anecdotes involving the concerned people, and all the drama and suspense. Central to the second theme of Indians in space is Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma라이브 바카라 flight in the Soviet rocket Soyuz T 11, in April, 1984. The memorable moment when the cosmonaut replied ‘Sare jahan se achcha’ from space to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi라이브 바카라 question, ignited an entire nation. Dinesh Sharma himself, a science reporter with PTI in Bangalore at the time, was involved in the reportage of those historic days and weeks. He takes us back to the pioneering efforts of the Soviet cosmonauts from Yuri Gagarin to Valentina Tereshkova; the space race between US and the Soviet Union; the American Apollo Mission; the Moon landing and other milestones; in crisp capsules, to highlight the human endeavours in outer space.
After Rakesh Sharma, Kalpana Chawla--the girl from Karnal, Haryana, is featured in a separate chapter. As the first Indian-origin American astronaut, Chawla scripted history in 1997 with her space voyage. However, her career came to a tragic end in 2003 in a space mishap. Her story is linked to the American Space Shuttle Programme, the world라이브 바카라 first reusable spacecraft. The author skims through India's ambitious Gaganyaan Project that is all set to enter the phase of sending a couple of trained astronauts to space; and presents the entry and big plans of private players and billionaires into the space sector; the planetary missions; the tourism and satellite clusters which portend dramatic changes back on earth while extending the human reach to Mars; and shines the spotlight on hitherto unknown or less known interplanetary spaces.
Somashekar Mulugu is a senior journalist based in Hyderabad