On August 12, 1919, Vikram Sarabhai was born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, into a prominent business family that at the time was comprised of industrialists. One of Ambalal and Sarla Devi’s eight children was Vikram Sarabhai. Vikram Sarabhai was drawn to the sciences at a young age even though his family was active in the Indian freedom movement.
He established the first rocket launching station in India at Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram on the coast of the Arabian Sea, primarily because of its proximity to the equator.
India launched its inaugural flight to space on November 21, 1963, with a sodium vapour payload. Dr. Sarabhai then started a project for the fabrication and launch of an Indian satellite. As a result, the first Indian satellite, Aryabhata, was put in orbit in 1975 from a Russian Cosmodrome.
The cosmic ray and space scientist was awarded the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award for Physics in 1962 and was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1966. He was awarded Padma Vibhushan posthumously.
The physicist, who predicted India’s ascent into space and the need to venture beyond the confines of our planet even as the nation struggled to put three meals on the table, passed away on December 30, 1971.
He laid the foundation of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) in 1969 and, in the five decades since then, India has not only left the planet but has also ventured onto the Moon and Mars.
Post Your Comments