On November 20, 1997, a Rohini RH-300 Mk-II sounding rocket rose to the skies from Svalbard, Norway, operationalising a new rocket launching range there. The solid propellant-powered rocket was shipped from India for the launch, while four senior hands of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) were specially flown to Norway to make sure everything went off all right.
The resolve to deepen space sector ties between India and Norway following Norwegian Ambassador Hans Jacob Frydenlund’s visit to the ISRO headquarters last week offers an occasion to recall this challenging mission which took place 26 years ago at Ny-Alesund, Svalbard.
‘’The RH-300 Mk-II was given a new name by the NSC (Norwegian Space Centre): Isbjorn-1, which translates literally as ‘Polar Bear-I.’ If we love our royal Bengal tigers, they love their polar bears!’‘ ISRO veterans P. V. Manoranjan Rao and P. Radhakrishnan have recalled in their 2012 book, ‘A Brief History of Rocketry in ISRO.’
