Contribution of India in satellite launching

After the launching of world's first satellite into orbit in 1957, the space technology has evolved rapidly. As a result, today satellites are making various earth observation, communications and navigations etc. possible. In the whole world, there are only 12 countries and one regional organisation which have independently launched their own satellites including India.

     

    India is emerging as a big name in this field. The beautiful journey started with the satellite Aryabhatta. The day of launch of Aryabhatta that is April 19, 1975 was written with golden letters in the history of space technology. But it was just the beginning of the revolution. India has been successfully launching satellites of different types with various vehicles including American, Russian, Europian as well as Indian after its independence. The organization responsible for these space programmes is Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO. Its shoulders have the bulk of designing, building, launching and operating these satellites. Till today, India has launched more than 363 satellites in which all most 250 are for other countries. Also in february 2017, ISRO created a new record by launching 104 satellites in one go. But the fact was that it included only 3 indian satellites. On september 24, 2014, India launched its first interplanetary satellite Mangalyaan. It costs India only $73 million which is even cheaper than an eight lane bridge in Mumbai which costs $340 million and about one tenth of what US has spent on MAVEN, considering mars is about 670 million kilometers from the earth. The cost of ride works out to be about ₹6.7 per kilometer which is cheaper than even the autorickshaws charge in India. These things shows that India is that source by which countries can send satellites in the space in a cheaper way. 

The launching of Chandrayaan 1 in 2008 has made every indian feel proud. As India discovered the widespread presence of water molecules in the lunar soil. This discovery made scientists rejoiced with the hope that it will prove the way of growing vegetation in moon in future. By this, India also provide other countries the map of moon which also help the scientists to do further researches on moon. As a result, on September 24, 2009, NASA thanked ISRO for their wonderful contribution to the world.

    Now India is hoping to the next year with the launch of Chandrayaan 2 and Aditya L1. Aditya L1 will study the surface of the sun. The obseevations of these satellites will help the world to increase the knowledge of the space.ISRO has also launched the first south asia satellite or GSAT-9 which is entirely funded by India that at one boosted its 'neighbourhood first policy' as well as helped it to carve a unique place for itself in space diplomacy by gifting a satellite to its neighbour countries. Not only it will help these countries to develop but also to make good relationships with these countries.

 At the time of independence, India was far behind from the developed countries particularly in the field of space research. In India, situations were so poor that a toilet in Bangalore was converted into a data receiving centre for India's first satellite. At that time our country was totally depending on other countries but now our country is not only launching its own satellites but it also offers this service many other countries.