October 12, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, popularly known as SHAR, located at Sriharikota in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, is all set to register another record with the
launch of Chandrayaan-1 mission on October 22.
With 28 successful launchings, including some international satellites, to its credit of the 33 odysseys into space, Shar is gearing up for yet another milestone. A jewel in the ISRO’s crown, Shar is a spindle shaped island in the Bay of Bengal.
In just three decades the island has transformed from a habitation of
tribals to an ultra-high-security zone, where the best minds of India work - minds that have catapulted India to its fame of being one of the select group of nations with space age technology. The island was selected in 1969 for setting up of a satellite launch station because of the advantages of its location. Characteristics such as good launch azimuth corridor for various missions, advantage of earth's rotation for eastward launchings, proximity to the equator, and large uninhabited area as safety zone all make Sriharikota Range a perfect spaceport.
The space centre was renamed as 'Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR' on September 5, 2002, in memory of Prof. Satish Dhawan, former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation. Signs of cultural past can be seen all over the island, left behind by the people who lived here long before the spaceport was born. The native Yanadi tribe has been rehabilitated. SHAR has a unique combination of facilities, such as a solid propellant production plant, a rocket motor static test facility, launch complexes for a variety of rockets, telemetry, telecommand, tracking, data acquisition and processing facilities, and other support services. The first flight-test of 'Rohini-125', a small sounding rocket, took place from here on October 9, 1971.
Since then the facilities here were expanded to meet the growing needs of ISRO.
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