Building a nation’s space programme from scratch is no mean feat. Once, in the early days of India’s own attempts in this direction, two of its scientists were asked to get ready to leave for Australia in one or two days. The idea was to make the most of an opportunity. The launch site of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) at Woomera was being closed down. The Indian scientists – B. Ramakrishna Rao and R. Aravamudan – were tasked with picking up the site’s telemetry station in an auction!
But when they reached Woomera, they found to their dismay that ELDO had decided to sell off the station as scrap, not really expecting anyone to bid for it. Seeing their disappointment, they were told that a similar station was up for sale elsewhere in Australia. They managed to get it at a bargain price, dismantled it and brought it to Sriharikota!
This and many other such stories and incidents from the infancy of what is now the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) make Indian Rocketinte Shilpikal (The Architects of the Indian Rocket), a 239-page book (DC Books) in Malayalam by former ISRO scientist V.P. Balagangadharan, a fascinating read. The book, in Mr. Balagangadharan’s own words, is confined to those individuals who helped kickstart India’s space programme and building and fly the first small rockets. In it, brief bios of 31 such men, scientists and administrators included, are intertwined with riveting and often delightful incidents from their careers.
