When was INCOSPAR established?

On 23 rd February 1962, the Indian National Committee for Space Research or
INCOSPAR was established by the government. It is headquartered in the city
of Bengaluru. INCOSPAR has played a crucial role in putting India in the
global space race activities.

Background

After the independence of India, Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru saw a
lot of potential in rocket science and understood the need for sound policy on
space for the development of the country.

Nehru put space research under the ambit of the Department of Atomic Energy
(DAE) in 1961 which was founded and headed by veteran nuclear scientist
Homi J Bhabha.

Bhabha created the Indian National Committee for Space
Research or INCOSPAR in February 1962 with Vikram Sarabhai as its
Chairman.

The chief mandate of the INCOSPAR was to formulate India’s space
program. The responsibilities of the DAE related to space research were then
taken up by the committee.

INCOSPAR was part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR)
which was led by a physicist from India, MGK Menon. APJ Abdul Kalam was
also part of the rocket engineer team.

The committee decided to establish the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching
Station (TERLS) at Thumba, near Thiruvananthapuram at India’s southern tip.

TERLS was chosen as a spaceport to launch rockets, because of its proximity to
the magnetic equator of the planet.

It is perfectly suitable for conducting low- altitude, ionospheric, and upper atmosphere studies.

Also, it is an extremely distant location from Pakistan, China, and Bangladesh.
In 1969, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was formed out of
INCOSPAR. In 1972, it came under the newly-created Department of Space.

Objective

The objective of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) is to develop
space technology and its application to various tasks of national and
international interest. Its vision is to “harness space technology for national
development while pursuing space science research & planetary exploration”

Events since the formation of ISRO

ISRO has successfully put into operation two major satellite systems, namely
the Indian National Satellites (INSAT) for communication services and the
Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites for the management of natural resources.

ISRO has developed various launch vehicles, like the Polar Satellite Launch
Vehicle (PSLV), the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), etc.

ISRO built its first satellite, Aryabhatta in 1975, which was launched on April
19, 1975, by the USSR. The first Indian-built launch vehicle was SLV-3 and it
was used to launch the Rohini satellite in 1980.

ISRO launched its maiden moon mission, a lunar orbiter, Chandrayaan I in
2008, which operated until August 2009.

ISRO launched its first Mars orbiter, the Mars Orbiter Mission in 2014. India
became the first country to achieve success in putting a satellite on Mars orbit in
its maiden attempt and the fourth space agency and the first Asian agency to do
so.

In 2017, ISRO created another world record by launching 104 satellites in a
single rocket. It launched its heaviest rocket yet, the Geosynchronous Satellite
Launch Vehicle-Mark III, and placed the GSAT 19 in orbit.

The second mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-2 was launched on 22 July
2019. However, it failed and caused a ‘hard landing’. ISRO may re-attempt a
landing by the second quarter of 2021 with Chandrayaan-3.

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