As the entire nation rejoices over the historic success of India’s Moon mission Chandrayaan-3, the Latin Church, a prominent Catholic denomination in Kerala, has reason to be a bit more excited as they played a unique role in India’s space saga.
Long before India started dreaming about a Moon mission or a Mars expedition and the country’s space programme was in the stage of infancy, it was the Latin Church that had wholeheartedly given their parish church and the adjacent bishop house for setting up the first unit of the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launch Station (TERLS) here.
TERLS was later renamed Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC).